How Political Actors Use the Media

A Functional Analysis of the Media's Role in Politics

Peter Van Aelst, Stefaan Walgrave, Peter Van Aelst, Stefaan Walgrave, Peter Van Aelst, Stefaan Walgrave

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9783319602493
• Topic: Ciencias sociales
• Subtopic: Estudios de medios

This book investigates how individual politicians and political parties strategically make use of the media to reach their political goals. Looking beyond a purely Americentric viewpoint, the chapters present data from more than ten Western democracies to argue that the media are both a source of information and an arena for political communication. This double functional role of the media is examined from both a theoretical and an empirical perspective, including chapters dealing with different aspects of politics - from campaigning to law making - and within different political contexts. The role of the news media is discussed from the perspective of the political actor, focusing on both the opportunities and the constraints the news media provide, resulting in a multidisciplinary text that will appeal to students and scholars of both communication and political science.

Table of contents

• Foreword: Political Actors and the Media
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Editors and Contributors
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Chapter 1 Information and Arena: The Dual Function of the News Media for Political Elites
• Part I Conceptualizing Media Influence in Politics
• Chapter 2 An Intervening Intermediary: Making Political Sense of Media Influence
• Chapter 3 Celebrities as Political Actors and Entertainment as Political Media
• Chapter 4 Political Public Relations and Mediatization: The Strategies of News Management
• Chapter 5 Too Powerful or Just Doing Their Job? Explaining Differences in Conceptions of Media Power Among Politicians and Journalists
• Part II The Media as a Source of Information
• Chapter 6 What Politicians Learn from the Mass Media and Why They React to It: Evidence from Elite Interviews
• Chapter 7 The Media Independency of Political Elites
• Chapter 8 When Politicians React to the Media: How the Attitudes and Goals of Political Elites Moderate the Effect of the Media on the Political Agenda
• Part III The Media as a Political Arena
• Chapter 9 Moving Beyond the Single Mediated Arena Model: Media Uses and Influences Across Three Arena’s
• Chapter 10 The Charm of Salient Issues? Parties’ Strategic Behavior in Press Releases
• Chapter 11 News Tone and the Government in the News: When and Why Do Government Actors Appear in the News?
• Part IV Combining Information and Arena
• Chapter 12 Why Do Politicians Use the Media When Making Laws? A Study On the Functional Use of Mass Media During Legislative Processes
• Chapter 13 Information Source and Political Arena: How Actors from Inside and Outside Politics Use the Media
• Chapter 14 Elaborating and Specifying the Information & Arena Framework
• Index