1st Edition

Making Sense of Mediatized Politics Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives

Edited By Jesper Strömbäck, Frank Esser Copyright 2015
    234 Pages
    by Routledge

    234 Pages
    by Routledge

    Over time and across Western democracies, the media has become increasingly influential, and a great deal more political processes have become altered, shaped or structured by the media and the perceived need of individuals, organizations and social systems to communicate with or through the media. The key theoretical perspective to understand this process is mediatization. As a long-term process which has increased the importance of the media and their spill-over effects on political processes, institutions, organizations and actors, mediatization is one of the most important processes reshaping politics and transforming democracies across the Western world.

    While the theoretical perspective of mediatization has become increasingly popular in recent years, scholarly understanding of the mediatization process and its antecedents, consequences and contingencies are still hampered by unresolved questions and a lack of systematic empirical studies. This volume addresses this by bringing together contributions that analyze and investigate different facets of the mediatization of politics, making a significant contribution to our theoretical as well as empirical understanding of this process, and setting the agenda for further research.

    This book was originally published as two special issues, of Journalism Studies and Journalism Practice.

    1. Making Sense of the Mediatization of Politics

    Jesper Strömbäck & Frank Esser

    2. News Media Logic in a New Institutional Perspective

    Kent Asp

    3. Mass Media Logic and the Mediatization of Politics: A Theoretical Framework

    Michael Meyen, Markus Thieroff & Steffi Strenger

    4. Mediatization and Political Leadership: Perspectives of the Finnish Newspapers and Party Leaders

    Pekka Isotalus & Merja Almonkari

    5. Opposing the Government but Governing the Audience? Exploring the Differential Mediatization of Parliamentary Actors in Switzerland

    Nono Landerer

    6. The Mediatization of Political Accountability: Politics, the News Media Logic and Industrial Crises in the 1980s and 2000s

    Monika Djerf-Pierre, Mats Ekström, Nicklas Håkansson & Bengt Johansson

    7. News Coverage of Politics and Conflict Levels: A Cross-National Study of Journalists’ and Politicians’ Perspections of Two Elements of Mediatization

    Peter Maurer & Barbara Pfetsch

    8. Phases of Mediatization: Empirical Evidence from Austrian Election Campaigns Since 1970

    Josef Seethaler & Gabriele Melischek

    9. Jumping the Shark: Mediatization of Canadian Party Leadership Contests, 1975-2012

    Shannon Sampert, Linda Trimble, Angelia Wagner & Bailey Gerrits

    10. Metacoverage and Mediatization in US Presidential Elections: A Theoretical Model and Qualitative Case Study

    Paul D’Angelo & Frank Esser

    11. Mediatization, Legal Logic and the Coverage of Israeli Politicians on Trial

    Anat Peleg & Bryna Bogoch

    12. Media Logic and Political Logic Online and Offline: The Case of Climate Change Communication

    Jörg Hassler, Marcus Maurer & Corinna Oschatz

    13. Passive Accomplice or Active Disruptor: The Role of Audiences in the Mediatization of Politics

    Tamara Witschge

    Biography

    Jesper Strömbäck is Professor in Political Communication and Ludvig Nordström Professor and Chair in Journalism at Mid-Sweden University, Sundsvall, Sweden, where he is also research director at the research institute DEMICOM. His books include Handbook of Election News Coverage Around the World (2008) and Political Public Relations (2011).

    Frank Esser is Professor of International & Comparative Media Research at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He is co-director of the National Research Centre on the Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century (NCCR Democracy). His research focuses on cross-national studies of news journalism and political communication. His books include Comparing Political Communication (2004), Handbook of Comparative Communication Research (2012), and Democracy in the Age of Globalization and Mediatization (2013).