Suchergebnisse

Research conducted in the United States and Canada shows that female candidates for political office are covered differently in the news than their male counterparts: Female candidates receive less coverage, their electoral prospects are more negatively assessed, and the focus of reporting is often on "soft" issues compared with coverage of male candidates. We examine reporting during the 2005 Bundestag election campaign to assess the degree to which findings can be extended from North American and European contexts. Germany's first female chancellor candidate, Angela Merkel, and her male opponent, incumbent Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, were the main focus of campaign news. Drawing on an analysis of the four main evening national television newscasts and the most widely read newspaper in the six weeks prior to Election Day, we show that while the two candidates were rather equal in terms of visibility in the news, and did not differ substantially in terms of the issues on which they were reported, gender did play a considerable role in framing certain stories.

Anti-immigrant populism is on the rise throughout western Europe. Traditionally, economic and immigration-related factors are used to explain support for anti-immigrant parties at the aggregate level. Until recently, the role of news media has received only limited attention. The present study assesses the power of news content as an explanatory contextual factor, simultaneously controlling for the unemployment rate, the level of immigration, and leadership in the Netherlands for the period from 1990 to 2002. The results show that the prominence of immigration issues in national newspapers has a significant and positive impact: The more news media reported about immigration-related topics, the higher the aggregate share of vote intention for anti-immigrant parties, even when controlling for real-world developments. Future research explaining anti-immigrant party success needs to take into account the role of news media content. [Copyright 2006 Elsevier Ltd.]

Research conducted in the United States and Canada shows that female candidates for political office are covered differently in the news than their male counterparts: Female candidates receive less coverage, their electoral prospects are more negatively assessed, and the focus of reporting is often on 'soft' issues compared with coverage of male candidates. We examine reporting during the 2005 Bundestag election campaign to assess the degree to which findings can be extended from North American and European contexts. Germany's first female chancellor candidate, Angela Merkel, and her male opponent, incumbent Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, were the main focus of campaign news. Drawing on an analysis of the four main evening national television newscasts and the most widely read newspaper in the six weeks prior to Election Day, we show that while the two candidates were rather equal in terms of visibility in the news, and did not differ substantially in terms of the issues on which they were reported, gender did play a considerable role in framing certain stories. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright 2007 by the President and the Fellows of Harvard College.]

A B S T R A C T ■ An intriguing question in communication science deals with factors determining the intensity of news reporting about certain issues. The study investigates whether the prominence of immigration and the integration of minorities in news coverage reflects real-world developments or whether it is dependent on (political) key events. The authors compare the direct effects of real-world developments and key events in Dutch newspapers for the period 1991—2002 on the prominence of issue coverage. Results indicate that events have a more direct impact on the attention given to immigration and the integration of minorities in the news. The authors furthermore find that international events have a direct, but temporary effect, while most institutional national events influence media attention permanently. ■

"Die Autoren ermitteln in ihrer Inhaltsanalyse den fehlenden Regierungsbonus der Berichterstattung der TV-Hauptnachrichtensendungen und der Bild-Zeitung in den letzten sechs Wochen vor der Wahl. Zudem konnten sie zeigen, dass sich die Berichterstattung der Bild-Zeitung teilweise deutlich von den TV-Nachrichten unterschied. Im Mittelpunkt ihres Beitrags steht jedoch die Frage, ob die Wahlkampfberichterstattung geschlechtsspezifische Unterschiede aufwies. Aus den USA ist bekannt, dass die Medien über Kandidatinnen anders berichten als über Kandidaten - vor allem hinsichtlich der Themenschwerpunkte und der verwendeten Frames. In der Berichterstattung vor der Bundestagswahl finden sich solche geschlechtsspezifischen Unterschiede jedoch kaum. So wurde zwar häufiger über Spitzenpolitiker als über Spitzenpolitikerinnen berichtet, Angela Merkel war jedoch in den Medien genauso präsent wie Gerhard Schröder. Auch wurde Merkel nicht deutlich schlechter bewertet als Schröder (in der Bild-Zeitung wurde sie sogar besser bewertet). Auch auf der Seite der Themenstruktur finden sich lediglich marginale Unterschiede, d.h. über Merkel wurde nicht wesentlich häufiger im Zusammenhang mit 'weichen Frauenthemen' berichtet als über Schröder. Allerdings fand sich ein leichter Gender Frame in der Berichterstattung über Merkel, der jedoch bei weitem nicht so deutlich ausfiel wie dies in den USA üblich ist. Die Tatsache, dass mit Angela Merkel erstmals eine Frau für das Amt des Bundeskanzlers kandidierte, schlug sich also nicht besonders stark in der Art der Medienberichterstattung über den Wahlkampf nieder." (Textauszug)

"The Media and Political Behavior" published on by Oxford University Press.

The potential accession of Turkey to the European Union (EU) is a controversial issue. This article considers how national political parties in the EU view Turkish membership, with a focus on the role of religion in party politics, in particular the positions of Christian Democratic (CD) parties. Whereas this party family is traditionally considered to be outspokenly pro-European, it is argued that Turkish accession poses a challenge to Europhile CD parties. On the basis of the party manifesto coding from the 2009 European Election Study project, our results confirm a significantly more hesitant position of CD parties vis-a-vis Turkey accession compared to other parties. The study suggests that CD parties' positions, although overall supportive of the EU, may turn into opposition when it comes to specific policies touching on religious questions. Adapted from the source document.

AbstractA plethora of accumulating crises, and the public frustration with how they were tackled, have provided fertile ground for growing public scepticism towards the European Union (EU). The way in which political leaders manage these crises may well decide the future of the EU. Research has addressed these developments comprehensively. However, it has not, to date, provided an adequate analytical lens to confront the crisis theme explicitly and therefore needs analytical advancement. We contribute to the debate by developing a framework for comparative analysis and evaluation of public political crisis communication, identifying four aspects along which public political crisis communication can be analysed: (1) how accessible it is, (2) how well it can contribute to allaying fears, (3) to what extent it accommodates public concerns, and (4) how politically aligned crisis managers are in their communication. We analyse a dataset of 10 years of speeches and press releases of the governments of Austria, Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom in addition to the EU's executive institutions (EU Commission and Councils). Drawing on different approaches to automated text analysis, we score texts on the four identified dimensions and draw dimensions together in a holistic similarity index. Results demonstrate the cohesion of crisis‐relevant communication in contrast to non‐relevant communication. They also show that accommodation, is consistently emphasised more in crisis than in non‐crisis communication; however, political crisis managers have practiced a politics of fear rather than allaying concerns, potentially fuelling political frustration and disenchantment. In addition, the EU's crisis communication is not found to be different from communication about non‐crisis topics, opening up avenues for future research concerned with legitimation processes at different political levels. Overall, the results do partly resonate with the insights provided by the existing literature but also shine a new, holistic light on how political executives have managed crises in the past decade.

Abstract
The arrival of refugees to Europe increased dramatically in 2015. This situation produced polarized responses across the European Union and caused intensive media attention and public debate. This study investigates claim-making on the so-called refugee crisis in the public sphere in three countries: Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It asks who shaped the discourse on the crisis in national public realms, how the discourse took shape and to what degree a common European discourse would emerge. Actors' positions and claims in the mediated discourse during the first peak of the crisis between August and October 2015 are examined, drawing on an analysis of 3,226 claims in a cross-country comparison. Results indicate institutionalization and shift between security–humanitarian discourses and balanced threat–victim-framing. The findings suggest that the debate was confined to national public spheres, but with first signs of a common European discourse. This study contributes to the literature on representation of migration in the media in a cross-national perspective within the context of the recent crisis.