How politics becomes news and news becomes politics. A comparative study among political journalists and politicians in Switzerland and the Netherlands.

News media are a central player in contemporary western democracies. Yet their political influence is poorly understood and the ways politics and media interact require deeper investigation. This studies deals with the reciprocal relationship between political journalists and politicians in Switzerland and 4 the Netherlands based on an actor-centered approach. Our main goal is to identify factors which make it more likely that political messages gets published by the media, and next, from a politicians'perspective, what news coverage makes it more likely that an individual politician will take action. A factorial survey among political journalists and politicians in both countries will test the characteristics of messages such as the standing of the actor, the issue or the parliamentary action announced. We will test in our comparative design whether political system characteristics moderate news values that have been found to be applicable around the World. Comparing the findings acrosscountries and actors will allow us to gain greater insight into how political news comes about and, even more importantly, what effects media coverage has on the behavior of political actors.

Keywords:POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR, NEWS SELECTION, FACTORIAL SURVEY, POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

Disciplines:Other economics and business, Citizenship, immigration and political inequality, International and comparative politics, Multilevel governance, National politics, Political behaviour, Political organisations and institutions, Political theory and methodology, Public administration, Other political science, Communication sciences, Journalism and professional writing, Media studies, Other media and communications

Project type:Collaboration project