New media is playing an important role in the financial world. Rapid growth in stock market message boards, chat rooms, and other electronic means for investors to share market information makes clear the ever-increasing demand for online stock trading. In addition to an increasing number of...

We use a novel instrument--the local lineup position of business channels--to show that media exposure from cable television increases equity participation by increasing awareness of the stock market for first-time investors. Economically, a one-standard deviation reduction in the lineup...