新闻媒体的信息和监督功能:基于上市公司会计盈余价值相关性的研究

The Information and Monitoring Role of Media Coverage:Evidence From Earnings Relevance of Listed Firms

针对新闻媒体这一资本市场的信息中介,本文基于信息传播和治理监督视角,考察了媒体报道对上市公司会计盈余价值相关性的影响,并进一步分析这种影响的作用路径。本文研究发现,随着新闻媒体对公司报道的增多,会计盈余的价值相关性提高,即更多的盈余信息被融入股票价格中。进一步的分析显示,对于信息透明度越差的公司,会计盈余价值相关性受媒体报道的影响更显著;相反,对于投资者关注度越高的公司,媒体报道对会计盈余价值相关性的影响减弱。最后,本文考察了媒体报道的作用路径,研究表明,新闻媒体对会计盈余价值相关性的提升作用主要通过扩大投资者基数、提高投资者认知和改善公司治理等渠道实现。本文主要考察了媒体报道对上市公司的信息功能和监督功能的影响及其作用路径,有助于管理层、投资者和监管部门了解其对公司治理和定价机制的影响,进而提高证券市场的资本配置效率。

The basic function of the capital market is to make use of the signal mechanism of the stock price to realize the optimal allocation of resources. In a functional and efficient securities market, the role of the price mechanism depends on the full flow of information. As for the media, the information intermediary in the capital market, we empirically examine the impact of media coverage on the value-relevance of earnings and further investigate through which mechanisms the media play its role from the perspective of information transfer and monitoring. Using the data of listed companies from 2007 to 2012, we find that media coverage increases the value-relevance of earnings with more earnings information absorbed into the stock price. Further evidence shows that the influence of media coverage on the value-relevance of earnings is stronger for companies with lower information transparency; conversely, for those with higher investors＇ attention, the effect of media coverage on the value-relevance of earnings weakens. Finally, we test the mechanism through which the media influence the value-relevance of earnings. The results indicate that the improvement of media coverage to the value-relevance of earnings is mainly derived from expanding the base of investors, increasing the investors＇ cognitive level and strengthening the corporate governance. The contributions of this study are as follows： First, the analysis expands the existing research of news media. This paper analyzes the role of news media in the capital market from the perspective of accounting earnings relevance, and provides empirical evidence for understanding the role of news media in emerging market. Second, our research also enriches the literature of value relevance of accounting information, which not only helps to understand the role of news media as an important information intermediary in stock pricing, but also enhances the recognition of the factors influencing accounting earnings value relevance. Third, this paper analyzes through which channels news media affect earnings value relevance, and provides empirical evidence. It helps to further understand the role of news media＇s information dissemination and supervision. Finally, the research of this paper also deepens the understanding of the pricing efficiency of China＇s securities market. The research shows that news media promotes the information transmission of the capital market, helps the accounting earnings information integrate into the stock price and improves the pricing efficiency of the capital market.