The Political Conditionality of Mass Media Influence: When Do Parties Follow Mass Media Attention?
- 11 February 2010
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in British Journal of Political Science
- Vol. 40 (3), 663-677
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s0007123410000037
Abstract
Claims regarding the power of the mass media in contemporary politics are much more frequent than research actually analysing the influence of mass media on politics. Building upon the notion of issue ownership, this article argues that the capacity of the mass media to influence the respective agendas of political parties is conditioned upon the interests of the political parties. Media attention to an issue generates attention from political parties when the issue is one that political parties have an interest in politicizing in the first place. The argument of the article is supported in a time-series study of mass media influence on the opposition parties’ agenda in Denmark over a twenty-year period.Keywords
This publication has 32 references indexed in Scilit:
- Where Does Issue Ownership Come From? From the Party or from the Media? Issue-party Identifications in Belgium, 1991-2005The International Journal of Press/Politics, 2007
- Long-term Changes in Danish Party Politics: The Rise and Importance of Issue CompetitionScandinavian Political Studies, 2006
- The Origins of Campaign AgendasBritish Journal of Political Science, 2006
- Who Follows Whom?The International Journal of Press/Politics, 2002
- "Mediatization" of Politics: A Challenge for Democracy?Political Communication, 1999
- The Third Age of Political Communication: Influences and FeaturesPolitical Communication, 1999
- Attention to Issues in a System of Separated Powers: The Macrodynamics of American Policy AgendasThe Journal of Politics, 1999
- The Logic of Party AlignmentsJournal of Theoretical Politics, 1991
- Television News, Real-World Cues, and Changes in the Public AgendaPublic Opinion Quarterly, 1985
- Investigating Causal Relations by Econometric Models and Cross-spectral MethodsEconometrica, 1969