Comparing Political Communication across Time and Space

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1 Comparing Political Communication across Time and Space

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3 Comparing Political Communication across Time and Space New Studies in an Emerging Field Edited by María José Canel University Complutense Madrid, Spain and Katrin Voltmer University of Leeds, UK

4 Introduction, selection and editorial matter María José Canel and Katrin Voltmer 2014 Individual chapters Contributors 2014 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act First published 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Comparing political communication across time and space : new studies in an emerging field / edited by María José Canel, Katrin Voltmer. pages cm ISBN Communication in politics Cross-cultural studies. I. Canel, María José. II. Voltmer, Katrin. JA85.C dc

5 Contents List of Figures List of Tables Notes on Contributors vii viii x 1 Comparing Political Communication across Time and Space: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges in a Globalized World An Introduction 1 María José Canel and Katrin Voltmer Part I Challenges of Comparative Political Communication Research: Design, Methods and Measurement 2 Methodological Challenges in Comparative Communication Research: Advancing Cross-National Research in Times of Globalization 15 Frank Esser 3 The Role of Measurement Invariance in Comparative Communication Research 31 Christian Schemer, Rinaldo Kühne and Jörg Matthes 4 Using Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis in Comparative Political Communication Research: Applying Fuzzy Set Theoretic Thinking to Small-N Case-Oriented Research 47 John Downey and James Stanyer Part II Communicating with Citizens: Campaigns, Political PR and the Media 5 Negativity in the Public Space: Comparing a Hundred Years of Negative Campaigning on Election Posters in Sweden 67 Bengt Johansson 6 US and International Coverage of the Election of Barack Obama: Trends and Differences 83 Salma Ghanem v

6 vi Contents 7 Is It Enough to Be Strategic? Comparing and Defining Professional Government Communication across Disciplinary Fields and between Countries 98 María José Canel and Karen Sanders 8 Comparing Political Participation in Different Institutional Environments: The Mobilizing Effect of Direct Democracy on Young People 117 Ruth Kunz, Judith Moeller, Frank Esser and Claes de Vreese Part III Journalism and Media Realities: Journalistic Cultures, the Market and Political News 9 Political Trust among Journalists: Comparative Evidence from 21 Countries 137 Thomas Hanitzsch and Rosa Berganza 10 Making Sense of Press Freedom: A Comparison of Journalists Perceptions of Press Freedom in Eastern Europe and East Asia 157 Katrin Voltmer 11 A Hedge between Keeps Friendship Green Concurrence and Conflict between Politicians and Journalists in Nine European Democracies 172 Barbara Pfetsch, Peter Maurer, Eva Mayerhöffer and Tom Moring 12 It Didn t Happen Here: Commercialization and Political News Coverage in Swedish Television Lars W. Nord and Jesper Strömbäck 13 Global Climate Change, Global Public Sphere? Media Attention to Climate Change in 27 Countries 210 Ana Ivanova, Andreas Schmidt and Mike S. Schäfer 14 Conclusion: Comparing across Space and Time Challenges and Achievements in Political Communication Research 228 Barbara Pfetsch Index 241

7 List of Figures 2.1 Extension 1: Translate external influences into variables (by specifying the linking mechanism between cases) and incorporate them in comparative design Extension 2: Study interplay between external and internal variables and how cross-border influences are negotiated locally Extension 3: Incorporate additional de-nationalized control cases in comparative designs Extension 4: Adopt multi-layered approach that compares (a) larger media scapes and system families at supranational level, (b) media systems at national level, and (c) milieus, subcultures or communities at subnational level Extension 5: Integrate new perspectives Configural invariance model Metric invariance model Scalar invariance model Advertising effects model: Influence of attention to political advertisements on negative affect towards asylum seekers Negative, positive, and contrasting appeals on Swedish election posters, Issues, ideology and traits as characteristics of negative campaigning in Swedish election posters, Categorization of government communication Illustration of underlying research logic Strength of indirect effect (direct democracy on political engagement through internal political efficacy) depending on news use Journalists political and social trust Journalists political trust and corruption A selection of the conceptually distinct ranges of transnational public spheres The development of media attention to climate change in the surveyed countries, January 1996 to June Variation coefficients of the country groupings over time The political communication system 235 vii

8 List of Tables 3.1 Model comparison: Impact of invariance constraints on model fit Comparison of factor loadings across time and culture in the unconstrained model Causal recipe explaining high levels of personalized mediated political communication in democracies Causal recipe explaining not high levels of personalized mediated political communication in democracies (the negation) Crisp and fuzzy sets Intermediate solutions for the personalization of political communication Cases of publicized infidelity involving politicians, Truth table displaying the causal conditions of membership of fuzzy set: democracies where politicians infidelity is publicized The causal recipes that explain the outcome The causal recipes that explain the negation of the outcome Evidence in positive and negative appeals in Swedish election posters, Party differences and the impact of political position in using positive, contrast and negative appeals in Swedish election posters, The mention of race, change and hope in US and international papers The mention of race, change and hope in red and blue American states The mention of race, change and hope in newspapers that endorsed Obama and those in newspapers that endorsed McCain Summary of OLS regression analysis for variables predicting political participation Summary of OLS regression analysis for variables predicting the mediator, internal political efficacy Journalists trust in public institutions across countries Journalists and the general public s trust in political institutions 148 viii

9 List of Tables ix 11.1 Perception of the mutual relationship Reasons for conflict by group and by country Perceived impact of political convictions on interaction Difference in journalistic role orientations: journalists politicians Difference in political role orientations between politicians (self) and journalists (other) (total, mean difference) Some key figures for Swedish public television, Number of political news stories included in the content analysis The framing of politics as a strategic game or as scandal The framing of politics as issues and substance News anchors interviewing other journalists, who are acting as news analysts Share of news stories characterized by an interpretive journalistic style Overview of analyzed countries and newspapers Variation and correlation of levels and trends of attention to climate change in the different country groups 218

10 Notes on Contributors Rosa Berganza is Professor and Chair of Journalism at the University of Rey Juan Carlos (URJC, Madrid, Spain). Her recent works include articles published in international peer-reviewed journals containing crossnational studies from a comparative perspective including Journal of Communication (2012), International Journal of Press/Politics (2012), Journalism (2012), Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly (2010), Journalism Studies (2011), Journal of Political Marketing (2009), and European Journal of Communication (2008). Researcher of the FP7 EU-Project INFOCORE (www. infocore.eu), her research primarily focuses on political communication, content analysis, transnational comparative studies of media and journalism, European Union campaigns, election coverage and campaigning, media effects and public opinion, and women and the media. She has been a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Public Opinion Research between 2010 and 2013, and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Political Marketing (Routledge) and Executive Board Member of ACOP (Asociación de Comunicación Política, She is also a member of NEPOCS (Network of European Political Communication Scholars, and Worlds of Journalism Study Member ( She received the Top Paper Award from the Journalism Studies Division of the International Communication Association (ICA Convention Phoenix, USA, May 2012) (with T. Hanitzsch). María Jose Canel is Tenured Professor, with a Chair in Political Communication at Complutense University, Madrid. At present, she is the Chief of the Department of Audiovisual Communication, Advertising and Public Relations. Her research interests focus on political, government and public sector communication. She has published nationally and internationally in major publishing companies and specialized journals. She has conducted comparative research on media scandals and on government communication. Her most recent book is a co-edited comparative study of government communication in 15 countries ( Government Communication. Cases and Challenges, 2013). Her books also include Opinión Pública (1993), Comunicación Política (1999), Retrato de la profesión periodística (2000), Morality Tales: Political Scandals in Britain and Spain in the 1990s (2006, with Karen Sanders) and Comunicación de las instituciones públicas (2007). She is Chair of the Political Communication division at IAMCR and ECREA, and A member of the editorial board of The Journal of Communication and of The International Encyclopedia of Communication (Wiley-Blackwell). x

11 Notes on Contributors xi Claes de Vreese is Professor and Chair of Political Communication at the Amsterdam School of Communication at the University of Amsterdam. His research interests include political journalism and media effects. He has published dozens of articles in international journals and his most recent co-authored book is Political Journalism in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press). He is the editor of Political Communication. John Downey is Professor of Comparative Media Analysis and research challenge leader for Communication, Culture and Citizenship at Loughborough University. He has written widely on the public sphere, on new media, and on comparative methodology. As well as receiving funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, he has conducted research for the BBC Trust, the Office of Communication, the Commission for Racial Equality, and The Guardian newspaper. Frank Esser is Professor of International and Comparative Media Research at the University of Zurich. There he also co-directs National Research Center on the Challenges to Democracy (NCCR Democracy) in the 21st Century. After studying in Mainz and London, he was an assistant professor at the University of Missouri and visiting professor at the University of Oklahoma, University of Texas (Austin) and University of California (San Diego). His research focuses on cross-national studies of news journalism and political communication. His books include Comparing Political Communication (2004, with Barbara Pfetsch), The Handbook of Comparative Communication Research (2012, with Thomas Hanitzsch), Democracy in the Age of Globalization and Mediatization (2013, with Hanspeter Kriesi), and Mediatization of Politics (2014, with Jesper Strömbäck). Salma Ghanem, PhD, is Professor and Dean of the College of Communication at DePaul University in Chicago. Prior to joining DePaul, Dr.Ghanem served as Dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts at Central Michigan University. She also held the position of Chair of the Department of Communication at the University of Texas Pan American. She served as an information officer for the Press Office of the Egyptian Mission to the United Nations in New York and held the position of communication specialist with Scott and White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas. Ghanem has received multiple awards for research and teaching and has published and presented nationally and internationally. Her publications include political communication with particular emphasis on the first and second level of agenda setting and framing. She also published and presented research on international media coverage, intercultural communication and advertising in the Middle East. She earned a PhD in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin in Thomas Hanitzsch is Chair and Professor of Communication at the Institute of Communication Studies and Media Research, LMU Munich, Germany.

12 xii Notes on Contributors A former journalist, his teaching and research focuses on global journalism cultures, conflict coverage, celebrity news and comparative methodology. He earned his PhD in 2004 from Ilmenau University of Technology, Germany. Hanitzsch founded and chaired the Journalism Studies Division of the International Communication Association, and currently chairs the Journalism Studies section of the European Communication Research and Education Association. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Communication Theory, and has co-edited The Handbook of Journalism Studies (2009) and The Handbook of Comparative Communication Research (2012). Hanitzsch is currently leading the Worlds of Journalism Study, a massive multinational survey of journalists (see and is involved in several other comparative projects. Ana Ivanova is a PhD researcher in the CliSAP research group Media Constructions of Climate Change at the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability, University of Hamburg. Her research interests lie in the areas of comparative communication research, transnationalization of public spheres and communication research methods. Her recent publications include What Drives Media Attention for Climate Change? Explaining Issue Attention in Australian, German and Indian Print Media from 1996 to 2010 (2014, in International Communication Gazette, with Mike S. Schäfer and Andreas Schmidt), Media Attention for Climate Change around the World: A Comparative Analysis of Newspaper Coverage in 27 Countries (2013, in Global Environmental Change, with Andreas Schmidt and Mike S. Schäfer), and Is There a Medialization of Climate Science? (2013, in Science Communication, with Mike S. Schäfer, Inga Schlichting, and Andreas Schmidt). Bengt Johansson is Professor in Journalism and Mass Communication in the Department of Journalism, Media and Communication/University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He is also chair of the steering group at the SOM-institute. His research focuses on issues concerning different aspects of political communication, such as mediatization, political accountability and crisis news reporting, political advertising, election news coverage and political scandals. His current research interest is also oriented towards digital media morality. His work has been published in a number of scholarly journals, including Media, Culture & Society, Journalism Studies, Journalism Practice, Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties and Nordicom Review. Rinaldo Kühne is Assistant Professor in the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) at the University of Amsterdam. He holds a Master s from the University of Zürich (2008). His research focuses on framing effects, cognitive and emotional processes of learning and attitude change, and the cultivation of adolescents and emerging adults beliefs and values through media use.

13 Notes on Contributors xiii Ruth Kunz is a PhD student in the project Mediatization of political attitudes of the Swiss National Competence Center in Research on Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century (NCCR Democracy) at the University of Zurich. Her dissertation is titled Mediated political socialization. The role of the media in the political socialization process of Swiss youth. Jörg Matthes is Professor of Communication Science in the Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria, where he chairs the division of Advertising Research and Media Effects. He received his PhD from the University of Zurich. His research focuses on advertising effects, the process of public opinion formation, news framing, persuasion and empirical methods. Since 2011, he has chaired the Methods division of the German Communication Association (DGPuK). He is also Associate Editor of the journals Communication Methods & Measures and The Journal of Communication. Peter Maurer holds a master s in Political Science from the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz (2005) and a PhD in Communication Science from the Free University of Berlin (2011). He also holds a French certificate in European Political Studies from the Institute of Political Studies (IEP) in Strasbourg. Since October 2011 he has held the position of postdoctoral fellow (Universitätsassistent Post-Doc) in the field of journalism and political communication in the Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Austria. His research interests focus on presumed media influence and the mediatization of politics from a comparative perspective. In 2013, his first book, Medieneinfluss aus der Sicht von Politikern und Journalisten. Ein deutsch-französischer Vergleich, on media power perceptions of political elites from France and Germany, was published by the German Lit-Verlag. Most recently he published an article on the consequences of the mediatization of politics, co-authored by Barbara Pfetsch, in a special issue of Journalism Studies, 15(3). Eva Mayerhöffer is a doctoral student at the Institute of Media and Communication Studies, Freie Universität Berlin. Her research focuses on comparative political communication, in particular on the role of elites in political communication. Judith Moeller is a PhD student in the project Mediatization of political attitudes in the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) at the University of Amsterdam. Her dissertation is titled Growing into Citizenship: The Differential Role of the Media in the Political Socialization of Adolescents. Tom Moring is Professor of Communication and Journalism. He holds a position as Professor II at the Sámi University College in Kautokeino, Norway. Quite recently he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from

14 xiv Notes on Contributors Stockholm University. He received his PhD in Political Science from the Swedish School of Social Science, University of Helsinki. He started his career as a journalist, and later became Director of Radio Programmes for Swedish radio programmes in the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE). He has served as Chair of the Board of the newspaper/publishing group HSS Media, Ostrobotnia, Finland, which publishes four newspapers. He has worked as leader and grant-holding partner in international projects and has published comparative research on political communication culture, professionalization of journalism, politics, election campaigns, political advertising, mediatization, and broadcasting. He has written extensively on election campaigning in international volumes and national election studies. Among his other research interests, his work in the field of minority language and media merits mention. Lars W. Nord is Professor and Chair of Political Communication at Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall. Sweden. He is also Director of The Centre for Study of Democracy and Communication at Mid Sweden University. He is a member of the Executive Board of The European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA). He is the co-editor of The Media for Democracy Monitor (2011) and his articles appear in publications such as The International Journal of Press/Politics, Communication, Culture & Critique, Journalism and Communication Research. His research interests include political journalism, media policy, strategic political communication and crisis communication. He has served as an expert for the Swedish parliament and the government and he was a member of the latest government inquiry on public service media in Sweden ( ). He has a background as a professional journalist for national daily newspapers ( Dagens Nyheter, Sydsvenska Dagbladet ) and in public broadcasting ( Sveriges Radio ). Barbara Pfetsch is Professor of Communication Theory and Media Effects Research in the Department of Media and Communication at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Mannheim and has been a senior researcher at the Science Center Berlin for Social Research (WZB). Her first professorship was at the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart. Barbara has held fellowships at Georgetown University, Harvard University and the Center for Advanced Study in the Social and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. Her research focuses on comparative analyses of political communication systems and cultures, (online) media debates and the (European) public sphere. Among her books are Political Communication Cultures in Europe (2014), Comparing Political Communication (2004, with F. Esser), Politik in der Mediendemokratie [Politics in Media Democracy] (2009, with F. Marcinkowski) and Massenmedien als politische Akteure [Mass Media as Political Actors] (2008, with S. Adam).

15 Notes on Contributors xv Karen Sanders is President of the Association of Political Communication (ACOP) and Research Director for the social sciences campus at CEU San Pablo University (Madrid), where she directs the Research Centre of Communication Trends. She is a visiting professor at IESE Business School. Karen was at the University of Sheffield until 2006 and was a founding member of its Department of Journalism Studies. Karen lectures, writes and advises in the fields of political communication and communication ethics. Her books include Ethics and Journalism, Communicating Politics in the 21st Century and, in 2013, the co-edited Government Communication (with M.J. Canel). She is a frequently invited international speaker and runs communication courses for Spain s national public administration training body and for banking, health and charity organizations. Karen began her formal career in the City of London as the Parliamentary/Media Manager for the British Chamber of Shipping. Mike S. Schäfer is Professor of Science, Crisis and Risk Communication at the Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research (IPMZ) at the University of Zurich. He holds a PhD from the Free University of Berlin and has worked at universities in Leipzig and Hamburg. Mike s research focuses on science communication, political communication, environmental and particularly climate change communication as well as public sphere theory, combining the analysis of mass communication with a focus on online communication. He has authored a number of books and articles on these topics, including Online Communication about Climate Change and Climate Politics. A Literature Review (2012, in Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change ), Taking Stock: A Meta-Analysis of Studies on the Media s Coverage of Science (2012, in Public Understanding of Science ) and Is There a Medialization of Climate Science? (2013, in Science Communication, with Ana Ivanova, Inga Schlichting, and Andreas Schmidt). Christian Schemer is Professor of Communication in the Department of Communication, Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. Previously, he was postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich ( ). He received his PhD in 2010 from the University of Zurich. In 2013 he was a visiting professor at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. In 2011, he spent a year as a visiting scholar at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania (USA, ). His research focuses on media use and cognitive and affective media effects, political persuasion, advertising effects research and methods. He has published three books and more than 30 book chapters and journal articles. His work has appeared in leading journals, such as Journal of Communication, Communication Research, Political Communication, and International Journal of Public Opinion Research. Since 2010 he has been a spokesperson for the Methods division of the Swiss Communication Association. Additionally,

16 xvi Notes on Contributors he is in the editorial boards of Communication Methods and Measures and of the Communication Yearbook. Andreas Schmidt is a PhD researcher in the CliSAP research group Media Constructions of Climate Change at the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability, University of Hamburg. He is interested in climate change and science communication, sustainability governance, social movements and societal transnationalization. His recent publications include Media Attention for Climate Change around the World: A Comparative Analysis of Newspaper Coverage in 27 Countries (2013, in Global Environmental Change, with Ana Ivanova and Mike S. Schäfer), What Drives Media Attention for Climate Change? Explaining Issue Attention in Australian, German and Indian Print Media from 1996 to 2010 (2014, in International Communication Gazette, with Mike S. Schäfer and Ana Ivanova) and Sustainability and Climate Change: Interpretations and Claims by Societal Actors from Germany, India and the United States (forthcoming 2014, in Hemmer/Müller/Trappe (eds.): Rio+20 Nachhaltigkeit neu denken?, with Inga Schlichting). James Stanyer is Reader in Comparative Political Communication in the Department of Social Sciences at Loughborough University. He has authored three books and co-edited two collections and has published in a range of leading journals in the field of communication and media studies. He has been a principal investigator on projects funded by the BBC Trust, the UK government and third-sector organizations. He serves on the editorial boards of various journals and is a member of the Network of European Political Communication Scholars. Jesper Strö mb ä ck is Professor in Political Communication and Ludvig Nordström Professor and Chair in Journalism at Mid Sweden University, where he is also research director at the research institute DEMICOM. He has published more than 150 books, book chapters and journal articles on political communication, political news journalism, political public relations and political marketing, public opinion and the mediatization of politics. Among his most recent books are Mediatization of Politics. Understanding the Transformation of Western Democracies, edited with Frank Esser (2014), Opinion Polls and the Media: Reflecting and Shaping Public Opinion, edited with Christina Holtz-Bacha (2012), and Political Public Relations: Principles and Applications, edited with Spiro Kiousis (2011). Katrin Voltmer is Senior Lecturer in Political Communication at the School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds. Her research interests focus on the role of the media in emerging democracies from a comparative perspective. She has also widely published on the changing relationship between politics and the media in established Western democracies, the interplay between the media and public policymaking, and media

17 Notes on Contributors xvii influences on citizens political orientations. Her most recent book The Media in Transitional Democracies has been published in She has been principal investigator of various research projects funded by the British Academy and the ESRC. Currently she is leading an EU-funded FP7 project on Media, Conflict and Democratisation ( that includes eight partner institutions from Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Since 2012 Katrin Voltmer has been member of the governing body (Bureau) and Treasurer of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA).