Does candidates’ media exposure affect vote shares? Evidence from Pope breaking news
利用2013年意大利大选前教皇突然辞职导致电视报道减少的外生变化，发现右翼领袖贝卢斯科尼的媒体曝光下降26个百分点使其得票率下降2个百分点，部分选民转向互联网新闻并支持以网络宣传为主的新政党。
I study the impact of politicians’ media exposure in campaign on their vote share, exploiting an exogenous change in coverage during the Italian 2013 electoral race. Right before the election, the Pope Benedict XVI suddenly resigned and broadcast coverage of politics markedly dropped. Only five days of lower visibility of the right-wing leader and TV tycoon Berlusconi (-26 percentage points) caused a 2 percentage points dip in his vote share, and lead to his defeat by 0.4 percentage points. Following the TV coverage disruption, a part of Berlusconi’s electorate resorted to Internet for political news, and later favored a new party with Internet-centred propaganda.