Suchergebnisse

Answering the call for nonexperimental framing effects research, this article analyzes the effects of news frames on citizens' political cognitions using data derived from a campaign on the naturalization of immigrants. A content analysis of TV and newspaper coverage was combined at the individual level with answers to open- and closed-ended panel survey questions. The results largely confirm prior experimental framing effects research. Media frames had a strong impact on their public salience. Prior to the campaign, however, audience members interpreted the issue in different ways. Individual media exposure was found to affect frame adoption for all respondents (and all frames investigated), irrespective of the initial attitudes of respondents and the frames' origin. The implications of these findings for experimental and nonexperimental framing effects research are discussed.

Die Inhaltsanalyse ist für die Kommunikationswissenschaft die genuine Erhebungsmethode. Nur inhaltsanalytisch lassen sich Medieninhalte empirisch erfassen und analysieren und nur inhaltsanalytisch kann demnach eine Antwort auf die Frage gefunden werden, mit welchen Inhalten der Rezipient, von denen er potenziell beeinflusst wird, überhaupt in Kontakt kommt. Mit der Anwendung und stetigen Weiterentwicklung der Inhaltsanalyse ergibt sich für die Kommunikationswissenschaft die Möglichkeit, sich im Vergleich mit anderen sozialwissenschaftlichen Disziplinen ein Kompetenzfeld im Bereich der Erhebungsmethoden zu sichern. Dabei ist die Sicherung und Förderung der Qualität von Inhaltsanalysen und die Weiterentwicklung von standardisierten Qualitätskriterien von zentraler Bedeutung. Dieser Band widmet sich der Frage, welche Möglichkeiten es gibt, die Qualität inhaltsanalytischer Studien systematisch zu fördern und zu dokumentieren. Die Beiträge diskutieren Fragen der (eingeschränkten) Validität und Reliabilität bei der Codierung, sie beschäftigen sich mit der Auswirkung von Messfehlern für die inhaltsanalytischen Ergebnisse und den Anforderungen von Verknüpfungen inhaltsanalytischer Daten mit Befragungsdaten. Ein weiterer Schwerpunkt des Bandes liegt auf dem Umgang mit den (menschlichen) Codierern während des Codierprozesses, der Bedeutung von Motivation und Persönlichkeitsmerkmalen während der Codierung und den Konsequenzen von ›Codierer-Effekten‹ für die Qualität der Inhaltsanalyse.

In the wake of the recent successes of populist political actors and discussions about its causes in Europe, the contribution of the media has become an issue of public debate. We identify three roles—as gatekeepers, interpreters, and initiators—the media can assume in their coverage of populist actors, populist ideology, and populist communication. A comparative content analysis of nine thousand stories from fifty-nine news outlets in ten European countries shows that both media factors (e.g., tabloid orientation) and political factors (e.g., response of mainstream parties) influence the extent and nature of populism in the media. Although newspapers in most countries do not overrepresent populist actors and tend to evaluate them negatively, we still find abundant populist content in the news. Several media outlets like to present themselves as mouthpieces of the people while, at the same time, cover politicians and parties with antiinstitutional undertones.

Right-wing populism has a long tradition in Switzerland. Nevertheless, only little is known about how populist messages in the media contribute to the success of the Swiss People's Party (SVP) and to the acceptance of the party's anti-immigration policies. In this study, we combine data from a large media content analysis (including newspapers and TV news shows) with data from a panel-survey in order to address this research gap. Thereby we differentiate between effects driven by the content and the form of right-wing populist communication. While right-wing populist content depicts immigrants and the political elite as a threat to the Swiss people, populist style evokes the sense of a crisis by emotionalizing and dramatizing the message. Populist style is therefore assumed to increase the persuasiveness of populist claims. The results of this study suggest that this is the case only for some voters, while it backfires for others.

This study tests second-level agenda-building and -setting effects in the course of a referendum campaign. Personal standardized interviews with forty-seven different campaign managers and a content analysis of campaign material are linked to a content analysis of TV and newspaper coverage and a three-wave public opinion survey. The results demonstrate the dynamic flow of arguments in the agenda-building and -setting process: top-down from the campaigners to the news media and the public.

Abstract
The rising voter support for populist parties in Western Democracies in recent years has incited academic interest in populist voters and attitudes connected to the voting propensity of populist actors. In line of this research, numerous scales to measure populist attitudes among voters have been proposed. In most cases, however, the measurement of populist attitudes was tailored to specific countries and its applicability to cross-national research on populism was not assessed. This article uses a cross-national survey to assess the measurement invariance, reliability, and validity of a deductively developed inventory for populist attitudes. The findings suggest that there is a common attitudinal base to left- and right-wing populism which may be measured reliably and invariantly across nations.