"This title was first published in 2000. Offering original insights into the relationship between media and democratic theory, this volume brings together a renowned collection of international specialists who examine media and democracy, professional journalism, the anatomy of content and the current issues which concern both institutions. Challenging conventional discourse, this comprehensive collection contains the most incisive and informative articles on this fundamental subject."--Provided by publisher.
This handbook provides a review of the major research associated with political communication and sets the agenda for future study in this important discipline. It explores influences on political communication such as the media and technology and looks at the influences on political communication research.
Political communications literature has long been concerned with the question of whether media exposure results in symptoms of "malaise"—disaffection and withdrawal from politics—or, alternatively, whether it can mobilize people for political activity. Thus far, the results of research into this question have been inconclusive and at times contradictory in nature. However, nearly all such studies have been conducted in the context of the United States or other advanced democracies, and in these countries media use competes with a variety of other—perhaps much stronger—factors influencing political engagement, such as well-developed partisanship, strong group loyalties, lifelong personal experiences with the political system, and so forth. We chose to investigate the "malaise versus mobilization" question in the context of three new democracies—the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland—where the above-mentioned factors have not yet had a chance to mature, and where media use could potentially have an especially strong impact on attitudes and behavior. The project utilizes a series of comparable questions on national random-sample surveys carried out in each country during the parliamentary election campaigns of 2005 and 2006 to map party supporters and media audiences, and assess questions about malaise versus mobilization. Our maps of party supporters and media audiences show that TV news and tabloids reach larger and more diverse audiences than broadsheets and some niche broadcasting channels. In all three countries, while there were no significant relationships between media use and trust in government, there was some evidence to support the mobilization hypothesis: the use of broadsheets and politically opinionated weekly news magazines had a strong positive relationship with political engagement that remained when controlling for political interest and a number of sociodemographic characteristics. Our research suggests that the malaise versus mobilization debate continues to be an important basis for studying these more recent democracies.
To what extent are established democracies and new democracies moving closer together in terms of the impact of media messages in electoral campaigns? Drawing on a content analysis of main evening television news on flagship programs over two months during the Polish National Election Study's two-wave panel study ( N = 1,200) spanning parliamentary and presidential elections in September and October 2005, the authors identify the impact of media use on political knowledge, political participation, and political learning. They demonstrate the positive effect of media use on political knowledge, on participation in a variety of campaign activities other than voting, and on the stabilization of issue positions. Findings support those from recent elections in established democracies. The study suggests that in the context of more highly volatile electorates in the new democracies of East-Central Europe, campaign information in the news media plays a critical role in campaigns and electoral outcomes.
Some of the key findings are reported from a cross-national comparative content analysis of the flagship main evening TV news programs in five countries, as well as of the flagship Arab-language TV news on the Al-Jazeera network, during March and April 2003, the "official" 3-4-week period of the war in Iraq, to investigate the similarities and differences in the framing of the war in TV news. Despite some differences among networks within countries, the study reveals major lines of cross-national difference in the subtopics emphasized in the coverage, the tone of the coverage of the opposing sides, and the volume of news devoted to the Allies (the United Kingdom and the United States). It is concluded that the reporting of the war was conditioned by the national and international contexts in which the news was produced. The cross-country comparisons raise serious questions about the credibility and impartiality of TV news in the reporting of the war.
This article looks at how political reporting has changed over time in the Bild, Germany's most widely read newspaper. The authors content analyzed the political coverage during the seven weeks prior to the federal elections in 1990, 1994, 1998, and 2002. They found increasing emphasis on the campaign in the news from one election to the next, which can be explained by the fact that the elections themselves became more competitive and thus had more news value. They also find increasing negativity toward the two main parties between 1990 and 1998 and toward the SPD (Social Democratic Party) since 1998. The Bild's editorial decision to include more commentary pieces in 2002 is at least in part responsible for the strongly negative coverage of the SPD and the chancellor in that election, but the greater negativity was also due to the increased volume of other political news stories that also contained negative evaluations.
Our research investigates the opportunities provided by the Internet for political parties to communicate to the electorate, and the extent to which party websites are used versus other information sources on the Web. We find that parties in Parliament, major parties and newly created parties are more prominent online than others, and, based on standard quality indicators, that parliamentary parties and new parties have better quality websites. This confirms some of the findings concerning parties online in established democracies. On comparing party with news websites, however, we find that sites of online-only newspapers are the most popular; that online versions of offline news outlets are of secondary importance, in contrast to what has been found in established democracies; and that party and politician websites are of least importance to users, based on the number of hits to these websites. The political role of the Internet in Russia and Ukraine is discussed in conclusion.
This article looks at how political reporting has changed over time in the Bild, Germany's most widely read newspaper. The authors content analyzed the political coverage during the seven weeks prior to the federal elections in 1990, 1994, 1998, & 2002. They found increasing emphasis on the campaign in the news from one election to the next, which can be explained by the fact that the elections themselves became more competitive & thus had more news value. They also find increasing negativity toward the two main parties between 1990 & 1998 & toward the SPD (Social Democratic Party) since 1998. The Bild's editorial decision to include more commentary pieces in 2002 is at least in part responsible for the strongly negative coverage of the SPD & the chancellor in that election, but the greater negativity was also due to the increased volume of other political news stories that also contained negative evaluations. 2 Tables, 6 Figures, 30 References. [Copyright 2003 Sage Publications, Inc.]
Examines changes in political reporting in the German newspaper, focusing on a content analysis of coverage during the seven weeks prior to the federal elections in 1990, 1994, 1998, and 2002.
