Wie sehen Parlamentarier den Einfluss der Medien. Ergebnisse einer Befragung der Bundesragsabgeordneten

In: Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen: ZParl, Volume 43, Issue 2, p. 376-388

Abstract

Theories such as the third-person effect and the influence-of-presumed-media-influence focus on the question, in how far people expect themselves and other persons to be influenced by media. Additionally, the theories assume that these presumed influences can have individual cognitive or attitudinal consequences. To investigate the assumptions of these approaches a survey among members of the German Bundestag (n = 208) was conducted. It was measured how they estimated the media's political influence on different (groups of) individuals. The parliamentarians perceived a weak media influence on themselves. They do presume, however, that the media have a very strong influence on the general public. The more the politicians see the media as being influential on the public, the more negatively they evaluate this influence and -- as a consequence of the negative evaluation -- the more they demand that the influence should be restricted. Adapted from the source document.