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://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/a34b1023-7bb3-4b0f-810b-882de1665b76