Partisan bias in message selection: media gatekeeping of party press releases

Autor(en)

Martin Haselmayer, Markus Wagner, Thomas Meyer

Abstrakt

Parties try to shape media coverage in ways that are favorable to them, but what determines whether media outlets pick up and report on party messages? Based on content analyses of 1,496 party press releases and 6,512 media reports from the 2013 Austrian parliamentary election campaign, we show that media coverage of individual party messages is influenced not just by news factors, but also by partisan bias. The media are therefore more likely to report on messages from parties their readers favor. Importantly, this effect is greater rather than weaker when these messages have high news value. These findings have important implications for understanding the media’s role in elections and representative democracies in general.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Staatswissenschaft

Journal

Political Communication

Band

34

Seiten

367-384

Anzahl der Seiten

18

ISSN

1058-4609

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2016.1265619

Publikationsdatum

2017

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

508007 Kommunikationswissenschaft, 506014 Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Communication, Sociology and Political Science

Link zum Portal

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/partisan-bias-in-message-selection-media-gatekeeping-of-party-press-releases(7e47ba3e-c9d7-4647-8c44-a2944e6d5650).html