1st Edition

Comparing Political Journalism

    218 Pages 38 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    218 Pages 38 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Comparing Political Journalism is a systematic, in-depth study of the factors that shape and influence political news coverage today.

    Using techniques drawn from the growing field of comparative political communication, an international group of contributors analyse political news content drawn from newspapers, television news, and news websites from 16 countries, to assess what kinds of media systems are most conducive to producing quality journalism.

    Underpinned by key conceptual themes, such as the role that the media are expected to play in democracies and quality of coverage, this analysis highlights the fragile balance of news performance in relation to economic forces.

    A multitude of causal factors are explored to explain key features of contemporary political news coverage, such as Strategy and Game Framing, Negativity, Political Balance, Personalization, Hard and Soft News

    Comparing Political Journalism offers an unparalleled scope in assessing the implications for the ongoing transformation of Western media systems, and addresses core concepts of central importance to students and scholars of political communication world-wide.

    1. Our Goal: Understanding News Performance Claes de Vreese, Frank Esser, David Hopmann et al. 2. How We Did It: Approach and Methods David Hopmann, Frank Esser, Claes de Vreese et al. 3. The Explanatory Logic: Factors That Shape Political News Frank Esser, Claes de Vreese, David Hopmann et al. 4. Strategy and Game Framing Toril Aalberg, Claes de Vreese, and Jesper Strömbäck 5. Interpretive Journalism Susana Salgado, Jesper Strömbäck, Toril Aalberg, and Frank Esser 6. Negativity Frank Esser, Sven Engesser, Jörg Matthes, and Rosa Berganza 7. Political Balance David Nicolas Hopmann, Peter Van Aelst, Susana Salgado, and Guido Legnante 8. Personalization Peter Van Aelst, Tamir Sheafer, Nicolas Hubé, and Stylianos Papathanassopoulos 9. Hard and Soft News Carsten Reinemann, James Stanyer, and Sebastian Scherr 10. Cross-Conceptual Architecture of News Carsten Reinemann, Sebastian Scherr, James Stanyer et al. 11. Conclusion: Assessing News Performance Claes de Vreese, Carsten Reinemann, Frank Esser, David Hopmann et al.

    Biography

    Claes de Vreese is Professor and Chair of Political Communication at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He is the founding Director of the Center for Politics and Communication (www.polcomm.org). His most recent book is Political Journalism in Comparative Perspective (2014, with Erik Albæk, Arjen van Dalen and Nael Jebril).

    Frank Esser is Professor and Chair of International & Comparative Media Research at the University of Zurich, Swizterland. He co-directs the National Research Center on the Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century (NCCR Democracy). His most recent book is Mediatization of Politics (2014, with Jesper Strömbäck).

    David Nicolas Hopmann is Professor with special responsibilities at the Centre for Journalism and the Department of Political Science at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Denmark.