Information Disclosure Quality and Online News Media Coverage: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

Abstract

Using 44,989 firm-year observations from Chinese A-share listed companies over the period 2009–2023, this paper examines how information disclosure quality affects online news media exposure from the perspectives of corporate disclosure and public opinion. We measure disclosure quality with the KV index proposed by Kim and Verrecchia, and capture media exposure through three metrics: headline mentions, body-text mentions, and the count of negative reports. Year, industry, and city fixed effects are included alongside a set of firm-level controls. The results show that firms with lower disclosure quality receive significantly greater headline and body-text coverage and attract more negative reports. These findings remain robust after using lagged explanatory variables and alternative measures of the dependent variable. Further analysis reveals that overall innovation quality significantly amplifies the media-exposure effect triggered by declining disclosure quality. Heterogeneity tests indicate that the effect is more pronounced among firms with rapid asset growth, those not audited by a Big Four firm, and those that are profitable. This study uncovers the social communication consequences of corporate disclosure and provides empirical evidence for risk-oriented disclosure regulation, corporate information-governance and reputation-management systems, and media-platform fact-checking and content governance.