Original
Regional News, Regional Bias? Evidence From Media Discourses and Welfare Decisions in Germany
Abstract
ABSTRACT How do media representations of immigrants shape their treatment by street‐level bureaucrats? Despite a uniform federal legal framework, decision‐making varies substantially across local welfare offices. Though prior research links national news reporting and policy implementation, little is known about how regional variation in news reporting on immigration is linked to spatial variation in bureaucratic decision‐making. This is a key gap because regional media structures how residents perceive local developments and problems. I argue that street‐level bureaucrats are embedded within such a regional news environment, where reporting shapes their perception of regional immigration patterns and makes stereotypes cognitively accessible to them, influencing their decisions. I term this dynamic the regional media bias mechanism . To examine this phenomenon, I combine state‐level data on benefit reduction rates in Germany’s welfare program Citizen’s Benefit with regional newspaper articles (2010–2019). Leveraging topic modeling and panel data analysis, I show that regional narratives on rather positive topics of immigration are associated with more favorable administrative outcomes for immigrants, whereas frames emphasizing rather negative aspects correspond with stricter treatment. These results highlight the critical role of regional media in explaining regional variation in administrative decision‐making, thereby shaping policy implementation.
中文
区域新闻，区域偏见？——来自德国媒体话语与福利决策的证据
摘要
摘要 媒体对移民的呈现如何塑造街头官僚对其的处理？尽管存在统一的联邦法律框架，地方福利办公室的决策仍差异显著。已有研究将全国新闻报道与政策实施联系起来，但对于关于移民的新闻报道的区域差异如何与官僚决策的空间差异相关联，仍知之甚少。这是一个关键空白，因为区域媒体塑造了居民对本地发展与问题的感知。我认为，街头官僚嵌入在这样一种区域新闻环境中，其中的报道塑造了他们对区域移民模式的感知，并使刻板印象在其认知中更易获取，从而影响其决策。我将这一动态称为区域媒体偏见机制。为考察该现象，我将德国福利项目“公民津贴”（Citizen’s Benefit）中州层面的福利给付削减率数据与区域报纸文章（2010—2019年）相结合。借助主题建模与面板数据分析，我表明，关于移民的较为积极主题的区域叙事与对移民更有利的行政结果相关，而强调较为负面方面的框架则与更严格的对待相对应。这些结果凸显了区域媒体在解释行政决策区域差异中的关键作用，进而塑造政策实施。
关键词
区域媒体偏见、媒体话语、街头官僚、福利决策、移民、政策执行、德国、主题建模