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"The author presents a model of factors influencing the content of mass media-transmitted political communication. The basic idea behind the model is that the content of political communication is generally influenced by the political and the economic system, as well as by the actual situation in which the interaction between the mass media and political actors takes place. A set of hypotheses about journalistic behaviour is derived from the model. Content analysis data from three Danish general elections, as well as from the first direct elections for the European Parliament are confronted with these hypotheses. The empirical results show a recognizable pattern of interaction between politicians and journalists. For instance, journalists are more interested in what can be labelled as 'the here and now'. Also, conflicts as a news criterion are found more often in journalistic behaviour, than in the speeches of party representatives. But at the same time we can see a clear tendency among party representatives to take over some of these criteria of news value for their own presentation. The author argues that the mass media constitute a serious threat against a free and participatory democracy if they are specifically used for conflict presentation or for personalisation." (author's abstract)

"Much election communication scholarship could be described as anomic: short on standards but long on criticism. On the one hand, classical notions of democracy, and of the place of the interested/informed/ rational elector in it, have mostly been abandoned (without replacement by principal alternatives). On the other hand, the media are often condemned for numerous research-documented inadequacies of campaign reporting and election role. Meanwhile, television, a crucial vehicle of political communication generally and election communication specifically, has been exposed to an increasingly hostile barrage of criticism by standard-bearers of a wide range of causes and interests for its alleged failure to present their concerns authentically. In such an atmosphere, the time may be ripe for reappraisals and fresh statements of the standards of political journalism. Five priority guidelines for the enhancement of political journalism are proposed for discussion: (1) In media coverage of campaigns (and politics more widely) there should be more invitations to choose than to kibbitz'. (2) More credible and valid formats of political advocacy should be devised and tried. (3) The norm of impartiality should be re-interpreted to mean that all major opinion and interest groupings should be able 'at least to recognise in the coverage of their affairs the essential elements of what they believe'. (4) In addition to the more adversarial qualities of challenge, vigilance and exposure, a rounded political coverage would also occasionally acknowledge the problems involved in shouldering political responsibility and trying to implement policies. This is not a matter of looking up deferentially to office-holders but of avoiding an overly simplistic projection of the political vocation. (5) Ways should be explored of occasionally expressing explicitly those normative guidelines that predominantly shape political stories implicitly at present." (author's abstract)