Prof Valentino Larcinese

This course is available on the MRes/PhD in Political Science, MSc in Political Science (Conflict Studies and Comparative Politics), MSc in Political Science (Political Science and Political Economy) and MSc in Regulation. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process. For information on controlled access courses, including eligibility, application processes, deadlines, and departmental contact details, please refer to the Controlled Access Courses webpage.

How to apply: To apply for a place on this course, please submit a short statement of no more than 200 words via LfY. Your statement should outline your reasons for applying and explain how the course will support your academic and/or career goals. If applicable, you should also demonstrate how you meet any pre-requisites listed in the course guide. If the course is compulsory for your programme, no written statement is required.

Priority for places on Government (GV) courses will be given first to students for whom the course is compulsory. Where applicable, priority will then be given to students on the Department of Government programmes listed in the ‘Availability’ section of the course guide, followed by students on other programmes listed in that section. Students on all other programmes will be considered next, where a course is available as an outside option. You should ensure that you meet any pre-requisites listed in the course guide before applying. Places on capped courses cannot be guaranteed. Where a course is oversubscribed, places will be allocated based on programme priority and the written statement.

Deadline for applications: The deadline for applications is 12:00 noon on Friday 25 September 2026. You can expect to be informed of the outcome of your application by 12:00 noon on Monday 28 September 2026. Any places remaining after this date will be allocated based on priority and written statement - up until course selection closes.

For queries contact: gov.msc@lse.ac.uk.

Please note: this course is available to all MSc and MRes students from the Department of Government. Students from other departments are also welcome but should request permission from the teacher.

Familiarity with regression analysis and causal inference at the level of GV481 or equivalent.

In this course we will study how the mass media influence politics and policy by shaping political beliefs and behaviour. However, identifying causal effects is inherently difficult. Media exposure is not random: individuals self-select into outlets, and media respond to audience and political incentives, creating serious challenges of endogeneity, selection bias, and reverse causality. Recent years have nonetheless seen major progress. Improved research designs (natural experiments, field experiments) and credible identification strategies have significantly strengthened our ability to estimate causal media effects, moving the field beyond the “minimal effects” paradigm that dominated the post-war research toward a more nuanced understanding of when and how media matter. This course covers the recent evolution of this literature, with an emphasis on both methods and substantive findings. We examine how advances in research design have reshaped what we know about media effects and their political consequences. Specifically, we cover: (1) a brief history of media studies; (2) estimating causal effects in media studies; (3) media content and media bias; (4) voting behaviour, echo chambers and polarization; (5) from legacy media to social media.

25 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

Presentation.

Essay (1500 words).

One essay (max 1500 words) and one oral presentation.

Most readings will be journal articles. Here are some examples:

• Iyengar Shanto and Donald R. Kinder (1987). News that Matters: Television and American Opinion. University of Chicago Press, Ltd. London.
• Stromberg, David (2004): Radio’s Impact on Public Spending. Quarterly Journal of Economics 119(1):189-221.
• Adena, Maja, Ruben Enikolopov, Maria Petrova, Veronica Santarosa and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya (2015). Radio and the Rise of Nazis in Pre-War Germany, Quarterly Journal of Economics 130:4.
• DellaVigna and Kaplan (2007). The Fox News Effect: Media Bias and Voting. Quarterly Journal of Economics. 122: 1187-1234.
• Durante Ruben, Paolo Pinotti and Andrea Tesei (2019). The political legacy of entertainment TV. American Economic Review, 109, 2497-2530.
• Eisensee T and D Stromberg (2007). News Floods, News Droughts, and U.S. Disaster Relief. Quarterly Journal of Economics. 122(2), 693-728. 
• Snyder James and David Stromberg (2010). Press Coverage and Political Accountability. Journal of Political Economy. 118(2), 355-408.
• Larcinese, Valentino, Riccardo Puglisi and James M. Snyder (2011) "Partisan Bias in Economic News: Evidence on the Agenda-Setting Behavior of U.S. Newspapers". Journal of Public Economics.
• Gambaro, Marco, Valentino Larcinese, Riccardo Puglisi, and James M. Snyder Jr.. (2025). “The Revealed Demand for Hard versus Soft News: Evidence from Italian TV Viewership.” The Journal of Politics 87(4).
• Falck, Oliver, Robert Gold, and Stephan Heblich. (2014). “E-lections: Voting Behavior and the Internet.” American Economic Review, 104(7): 2238–65.
• Gentzkow, Matthew, and Jesse M. Shapiro. (2011). “Ideological Segregation Online and Offline.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 126(4): 1799–1839.
• Bond, Robert M., Christopher J. Fariss, Jason J. Jones, Adam D. I. Kramer, Cameron Marlow, Jaime E. Settle, and James H. Fowler (2012) “A 61-Million-Person Experiment in Social Influence and Political Mobilization.” Nature, 489(7415): 295–298.

Essay (100%, 6000 words) in Spring Term Week 1.

Summative essay of maximum 6000 words (excluding bibliography and tables but including footnotes).