Abstract
In a representative democracy the public has to be convinced that the priorities set in the public sector are based on the public’s attitudes. Alternatively, the public may be persuaded of the priorities set in the public sector. In either case the media play an important role in the transmission of political priorities to the mass public. The time spent on media consumption has increased steadily. Modern election campaigns are directed primarily at the mass media. Politicians use the media to tell voters that they are ‘on their side’. They launch campaigns to incite the media to inform the voters that issues they address deserve the public’s attention. It might be said that politicians also use the media to address ‘ghost’ issues only remotely related to policy issues, or to present politicians as versatile show business stars whose competence at winning the political horserace is self-evident. Ultimately, however, it is journalists, not politicians, who shape the news. Professional news values and news formats, as well as elusive media hypes, determine the news.
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Dirk Oegema is the third participant in the research project on which this chapter rests. His stimulating comments on this chapter, as well as the stimulating comments of dr. W. Kuiper, prof. C. van der Eijk and the editors of this book are gratefully acknowledged. Many of their suggestions must wait until further research, however. Drs. H.J. Bos, drs. S. van Hoorn, drs. G.J. van Dijk and drs. M.P. de Zwart contributed much to the content analysis part of the project. The authors would like to express their gratitude to drs. J.H. Faasse of The Media Partnership and to drs. G. Schild of NIPO BV who kindly made the weekly data with respect to media use and respondents’ political preferences in weekly polls available to us. We would like to thank the editors of KRO radio news and KRO breakfast television, since the required preparations of our weekly presentations of analyses of the latest news contributed much to the theory developed here.
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Kleinnijenhuis, J., De Ridder, J.A. (1997). Effects of Issue Priorities in the News on Voting Preferences; The 1994 Election Campaign in the Netherlands. In: Boorsma, P.B., Aarts, K., Steenge, A.E. (eds) Public Priority Setting: Rules and Costs. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1487-2_15
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