Communicating Political Positions on European Issues

A Comparison of Parties and Newspapers in Seven Countries

Bibliographic Data

ID7973073
AuthorsMelanie Leidecker-Sandmann (0000-0001-7203-2448, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, corresponding author), Beatrice Eugster (0000-0002-5272-7119, University of Bern)
Year2022
Volume20
Issue1
Pages62-82
Publication date2022-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Studies Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1478-9299 • E-ISSN: 1478-9302
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1478929920952001
OpenAlexW3088667151
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited55

This article starts from the observation that most voters know relatively little about positions and plans of political parties, especially when European Union politics is concerned. One reason for this could be that the main sources for political information, party communication and mass media coverage, provide voters only little concrete information about positions and plans of political parties. We ask how concretely, respectively vaguely, political parties and mass media communicate political positions prior to the 2014 European Parliament elections. We conducted a quantitative content analysis of all European Union–related press releases from 46 national political parties and of all European Union–related articles of 14 national quality newspapers from 7 European countries 12 weeks before the 2014 European Parliament elections. Our analysis shows that press releases as well as media coverage contain more concrete political positions on European Union issues than vague political statements. Other than expected, newspaper coverage provided the public with less concrete information than political actors did. Nevertheless, countries vary with regard to the extent to which party communication or newspaper coverage contain vague statements. We cannot find empirical support that the communication of concrete political positions depends on a party’s “extremity” of issue position or on the type of issue

Economics · European union · International trade · Mass media · Newspaper · Parliament · Political communication · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Position (finance · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Public Administration · Social Media and Politics

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