Intra-Campaign Changes in Voting Preferences: The Impact of Media and Party Communication

Autor(en)
David Johann, Katharina Kleinen-von Königslöw, Sylvia Kritzinger, Kathrin Thomas
Abstrakt

An increasing number of citizens change and adapt their party preferences during the electoral campaign. We analyze which short-term factors explain intra-campaign changes in voting preferences, focusing on the visibility and tone of news media reporting and party canvassing. Our analyses rely on an integrative data approach, linking data from media content analysis to public opinion data. This enables us to investigate the relative impact of news media reporting as well as party communication. Inherently, we overcome previously identified methodological problems in the study of communication effects on voting behavior. Our findings reveal that campaigns matter: Especially interpersonal party canvassing increases voters' likelihood to change their voting preferences in favor of the respective party, whereas media effects are limited to quality news outlets and depend on individual voters' party ambivalence.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Staatswissenschaft, Institut für Politikwissenschaft, Institut für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft
Journal
Political Communication
Band
35
Seiten
261-286
Anzahl der Seiten
26
ISSN
1058-4609
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2017.1339222
Publikationsdatum
09-2017
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
506012 Politische Systeme
Schlagwörter
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Communication, Sociology and Political Science
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/6efce623-e455-4055-9466-4043aae9f62d