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Article published In: Mass Media Effects and the Political Agenda: Assessing its Scope and Conditions
Edited by Ana Maria Belchior, Peter Van Aelst, José Santana-Pereira and Patrick Merle
[The Agenda Setting Journal 4:1] 2020
► pp. 88–108

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Why politicians react to media coverage

A comparative experiment of political agenda-setting

 | University of Geneva
 | University of Antwerp
Published online: 10 April 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/asj.19002.hel
Abstract
Why do politicians react to some stories in the news and ignore others? We attempt to answer this question by integrating the micro-level politician perspective with a macro-level country approach. Using a unique experimental approach, we test when politicians in the Netherlands and Switzerland (N = 80) take political action based on a (fictional) news report. We find that all politicians react more to negative coverage, but not if the information is merely presented as investigative reporting. Results also reveal a systematic variation that we ascribe to two key differences in the electoral systems. In The Netherlands, with its large single voting district, politicians react to news reports covering issues they are specialized in. In Switzerland, where between-party competition is more important, politicians are more likely to capitalize on the party’s profile. Overall, this study shows when and how politicians react to news coverage also depends on the institutional context.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theory and hypotheses
    • 2.1Institutional differences: Switzerland and The Netherlands
    • 2.2The role of the institutional context in political agenda-setting
    • 2.3Influences of the media content in political agenda-setting
  • 3.Study design
    • 3.1Respondents and data
  • 4.Results
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (66)
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