When News is Politics and Politics becomes News: A reciprocal analysis of parliamentary questions and press coverage in four West-European countries

The relationship between politicians and journalists is often portrayed as an intimate dance, characterized by interdependence. The political agenda-setting approach has been successfully used to improve our knowledge of general aspects of this power relationship. This study confronts existing theories with the actual behaviour of the involved actors. A detailed analysis of the press coverage and parliamentary questions in the Netherlands, France, UK and Germany allows us to test whether the hypothesized mechanisms actually take place and whether those hold in varying democratic systems. Using a detailed micro-analysis of press coverage preceding and following oral question hour, this study maps the conditions under which MPs are inspired by media and at the same time what features make their initiatives newsworthy. This paper takes into account variation both at the micro level (parliamentary question; media coverage) and at the macro level (political and media system variables).