Central banks lean on communication to anchor inflation expectations. But most households learn about the economy from the news rather than from policy statements, and in polarised societies, different outlets cover the same inflation very differently. Drawing on household panel data, television transcripts, and a randomised experiment in Turkey, this column shows that heavier inflation coverage on a viewer’s preferred channel raises their inflation expectations, an effect driven almost entirely by viewers of politically neutral channels. Partisan audiences barely respond, updating only to sources they already trust. Political segmentation of the media can therefore erode the common information base on which anchored expectations depend.



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