Knowing More from Less: How the Information Environment Increases Knowledge of Party Positions

Autor(en)

Susan Banducci, Heiko Giebler, Sylvia Kritzinger

Abstrakt

Access to information is a hallmark of democracy, and democracy demands an informed citizenry. Knowledge of party positions is necessary for voters so that electoral choices reflect preferences, allowing voters to hold elected officials accountable for policy performance. Whereas most vote choice models assume that parties perfectly transmit positions, citizens in fact obtain political information via the news media, and this news coverage can be biased in terms of salience - which leads to asymmetric information. This study examines how information asymmetries in news coverage of parties influence knowledge about political party positions. It finds that the availability of information in the news media about a party increases knowledge about its position, and that party information in non-quality news reduces the knowledge gap more than information in quality news.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Staatswissenschaft

Externe Organisation(en)

Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung gGmbH, University of Exeter

Journal

British Journal of Political Science

Band

47

Seiten

571-588

Anzahl der Seiten

18

ISSN

0007-1234

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123415000204

Publikationsdatum

08-2015

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

506012 Politische Systeme

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Sociology and Political Science

Link zum Portal

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/knowing-more-from-less-how-the-information-environment-increases-knowledge-of-party-positions(a34b1023-7bb3-4b0f-810b-882de1665b76).html