Phases of Mediatization

Empirical evidence from Austrian election campaigns since 1970

Bibliographic Data

ID12909159
AuthorsJosef Seethaler (0000-0001-8857-3935, Goethe Institute, corresponding author), Gabriele Melischek (0000-0002-0469-1596, Moscow State University of Technologies and Management named after K.G. Razumovskiy, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume8
Issue3
Pages258-278
Publication date2014-03-11
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournalism Practice (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1751-2786 • E-ISSN: 1751-2794
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17512786.2014.889443
OpenAlexW1508241941
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited52

As election campaigns changed substantially in Western countries, it is generally hypothesized that this change in campaign communication is rooted in a revolution in communications, with the media rejecting its former role as mere transmitters and becoming a major actor in the campaigning process. Regarding the analysis of the “mediatization of politics”, Strömbäck presented a four phases model which offers a way to explore such a process in an explicit and systematic fashion. The resulting struggle between political parties and the media over who shall control the agendas of campaigns forces politicians to adapt to and, finally, to adopt media logic. By operationalizing these four phases in order to allow for empirical research, we investigated the roles of the news media and the political parties in Austrian campaign communication in the last four decades. Taking the agenda-setting power as an indicator for changes in this relationship, our study is based on the concepts of agenda-building and policy agenda-setting as extensions of the agenda-setting model. To establish party and media agendas, a content analysis was conducted on news releases of all Austrian parliamentary parties, the main evening newscasts of all Austrian broadcasters, as well as the political coverage of two quality papers and two major tabloids during the “hot phase” of the campaign. For examining the “struggle over agendas”, a time-series cross-section design (including data on 20 different policy dimensions) was applied. First results are based on the analysis of five election campaigns in 1970, 1983, 1990, 1999, and 2008

Business · Content analysis · Epistemology · Media studies · Operationalization · Order (exchange · Political communication · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Social Media and Politics

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub