Search results

An introduction that sketches a background for the essays included in the thematic section of the journal & notes the sudden rise of interest in studies devoted to electoral campaigns in Belgium & the Netherlands; an attempt is made to explain the rationale for this trend. Major publications in this field are mentioned, & three particular topics that are of special interest to scholars in political science & political communication are identified: (1) the campaigning activities & strategies of political parties & candidates, (2) the content of campaign news & debates in the media, & (3) the effects of (1) & (2) on voter's behavior & choices. The differences in the evolution of studies of election campaigns between in Belgium and the Netherlands are pointed out. Z. Dubiel

Collective action and social movement protest has become commonplace in our 'demonstration-democracy' and no longer surprises the media or the public. However, this was not the case with the recent anti-globalisation protests that attracted demonstrators from countries all over the world. The battles of Seattle, Washington, Prague and Genoa, with an unforeseen mixture of nationalities and movements, became world news. Interestingly, the new media seemed to play a crucial role in the organisation of these global-protests. This article attempts to map this movement-in-progress via an analysis of the websites of anti-neoliberal globalisation organisations. It examines the contribution of these sites to three different conditions that establish movement formation; collective identity; actual mobilisation and a network of organisations. This, ongoing, explorative research indicates signs of an integration of different organizations involved and attributes an important role to the Internet. However, while both our methodology and subject are evolving rapidly, conclusions, as our initial results show, must be tempered.

Abstract
Why do politicians react to some stories in the news and ignore others? We attempt to answer this question by
integrating the micro-level politician perspective with a macro-level country approach. Using a unique experimental approach, we
test when politicians in the Netherlands and Switzerland (N = 80) take political action based on a (fictional)
news report. We find that all politicians react more to negative coverage, but not if the information is merely presented as
investigative reporting. Results also reveal a systematic variation that we ascribe to two key differences in the electoral
systems. In The Netherlands, with its large single voting district, politicians react to news reports covering issues they are
specialized in. In Switzerland, where between-party competition is more important, politicians are more likely to capitalize on
the party's profile. Overall, this study shows when and how politicians react to news coverage also depends on the institutional
context.

AbstractNews content diversity is generally considered to be an essential precondition for the promotion of social pluralism. However, how diversity of news content should be conceptualized and measured is less clear. We use a content analysis of newspaper articles about immigration (2013−14) in Belgium (Flanders) to measure the diversity of actors and viewpoints in the news, and to study the link between those two subdimensions of content diversity. We find that the representation of a plurality of active actors in a news article seems to go hand in hand with a more diverse range of viewpoints. The findings show that there are no significant differences in the level of actor and viewpoint diversity between quality and popular newspapers. However, the length of the article has a positive effect on providing more diversity. Moreover, our results indicate that allowing for individual immigrants to talk in the reporting is fundamental to promoting a more positive representation of immigration in the news.