123 Media Attention and Policy Dynamics

Analyzing the Evolution of Policy Agendas in Europe and North America
Wednesday, June 26, 2013: 11:00 AM-12:45 PM
2.21 (Binnengasthuis)
Shorttracked by LOC, Montesquieu Institute

This panel analyzes the interrelation between the media and the political agenda from an agenda setting perspective. The goal is to discuss how media coverage determines policy-makers priorities; to what extend policy makers have an influence on the media agenda, and when and under which circumstances this influence occurs. A vast set of studies has already analyzed these questions emphasizing different explanatory factors. For some, the capacity of the media to impact the political agenda varies across countries depending on media system characteristics (Hallin and Mancini 2004, Norris 2000, 2009) or their exposure to global forces (Currant et al. 2009, Castells 2010). Other authors stress the contingent nature of the interrelation between the media and the political agenda. Vliegenthart and Walgrave (2011) or Green Pedersen and Stubager (2011) consider that the capacity of the media to influence policymakers activities is linked to party politics and party competition, while other authors (Baumgartner and Jones 1993, 2009, Van Aelst and Walgrave 2009, Soroka 2002, Bennet et al. 2004) emphasize the importance of other factors like issue features or/and media outlets. This panel addresses these questions from a theoretical and empirical perspective.

Chair:
Laura Chaqués
Discussant:
Anke Tresch
All News Is Bad News. Newspaper Coverage of Political Parties in Spain
Frank R Baumgartner, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Laura Chaqués-Bonafont, University of barcelona and IBEI
Media Attention and Political Sense of Urgency in the Netherlands
Gerard Breeman, Wageningen University; Arco Timmermans, Montesquieu Institute and Leiden University
From Light Breeze to Hurricane: The Political Contingency of Media Storms
Gunnar Thesen, International Research Institute of Stavanger (IRIS), Norway; Christoffer Green-Pedersen, Aarhus University; Peter Mortensen, University of Aarhus
The Interaction between Media Coverage and Parliamentary Questions - A Cross-National Comparison
Laura Chaqués, University of Barcelona; Peter Mortensen, University of Aarhus; Pascal Sciarini, University of Geneve; Anke Tresch, University of Geneve; Stefaan Walgrave, University of Antwerp