Media effects on policy preferences toward free movement: evidence from five EU member states

Autor(en)

Christine Meltzer, Jakob-Moritz Eberl, Nora Theorin, Tobias Heidenreich, Jesper Strömbäck, Hajo Boomgaarden, Christian Schemer

Abstrakt

In a time when freedom of movement is being challenged by an increasing number of European Union member states, and where immigration has been dominating public debate for years, this study investigates the effects (i.e. frame salience and frame sentiment) of migration news on individuals’ attitudes about free movement. We are taking into account respondents individual media diet by linking a two-wave online survey in five European countries (n = 7,794) with an automated content analysis of online news coverage in these countries (n = 26,696). Findings indicate that overall the salience of specific frames (i.e. labour market and security), as well as sentiment, positively influence free movement attitudes among citizens. However, there are country-specific differences for both salience and sentiment effects. These findings have implications for our understanding of media effects on immigration attitudes and policy preferences as well as for comparative media effects research in general.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft

Externe Organisation(en)

University of Gothenburg, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

Journal

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

Band

47

Seiten

3390-3408

Anzahl der Seiten

19

ISSN

1369-183X

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1778454

Publikationsdatum

06-2020

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

506012 Politische Systeme, 508012 Medienwirkungsforschung

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Demography, Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)

Link zum Portal

https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/de/publications/media-effects-on-policy-preferences-toward-free-movement-evidence-from-five-eu-member-states(9f1aa39e-7e1f-4267-b0b2-66622c13ba46).html