How Political Actors Use the Media: A Functional Analysis of the Media’s Role in Politics

Description

This book investigates how individual politicians and political parties strategically make use of the media to reach their political goals. Looking beyond a purely Americentric viewpoint, the chapters present data from more than ten Western democracies to argue that the media are both a source of information and an arena for political communication. This double functional role of the media is examined from both a theoretical and an empirical perspective, including chapters dealing with different aspects of politics - from campaigning to law making - and within different political contexts. The role of the news media is discussed from the perspective of the political actor, focusing on both the opportunities and the constraints the news media provide, resulting in a multidisciplinary text that will appeal to students and scholars of both communication and political science. Front Matter ....Pages i-xxi Information and Arena: The Dual Function of the News Media for Political Elites (Peter Van Aelst, Stefaan Walgrave)....Pages 1-17 Front Matter ....Pages 19-19 An Intervening Intermediary: Making Political Sense of Media Influence (Gunnar Thesen)....Pages 21-37 Celebrities as Political Actors and Entertainment as Political Media (Regina G. Lawrence, Amber E. Boydstun)....Pages 39-61 Political Public Relations and Mediatization: The Strategies of News Management (Jesper Strömbäck, Frank Esser)....Pages 63-83 Too Powerful or Just Doing Their Job? Explaining Differences in Conceptions of Media Power Among Politicians and Journalists (Rens Vliegenthart, Morten Skovsgaard)....Pages 85-103 Front Matter ....Pages 105-105 What Politicians Learn from the Mass Media and Why They React to It: Evidence from Elite Interviews (Julie Sevenans)....Pages 107-125 The Media Independency of Political Elites (Stefaan Walgrave, Julie Sevenans, Alon Zoizner, Matthew Ayling)....Pages 127-145 When Politicians React to the Media: How the Attitudes and Goals of Political Elites Moderate the Effect of the Media on the Political Agenda (Alon Zoizner, Yair Fogel-Dror, Tamir Sheafer)....Pages 147-163 Front Matter ....Pages 165-165 Moving Beyond the Single Mediated Arena Model: Media Uses and Influences Across Three Arena’s (Aeron Davis)....Pages 167-186 The Charm of Salient Issues? Parties’ Strategic Behavior in Press Releases (Caroline Dalmus, Regula Hänggli, Laurent Bernhard)....Pages 187-205 News Tone and the Government in the News: When and Why Do Government Actors Appear in the News? (Christoffer Green-Pedersen, Peter B. Mortensen, Gunnar Thesen)....Pages 207-223 Front Matter ....Pages 225-225 Why Do Politicians Use the Media When Making Laws? A Study On the Functional Use of Mass Media During Legislative Processes (Lotte Melenhorst, Peter Van Aelst)....Pages 227-243 Information Source and Political Arena: How Actors from Inside and Outside Politics Use the Media (Nayla Fawzi)....Pages 245-263 Elaborating and Specifying the Information & Arena Framework (Stefaan Walgrave, Peter Van Aelst)....Pages 265-279 Back Matter ....Pages 281-282