Partisan Bias in Message Selection: Media Gatekeeping of Party Press Releases

Parties try to shape media coverage in ways that are favorable to them, but what determines whether media outlets pick up and report on party messages? Based on content analyses of 1,496 party press releases and 6,512 media reports from the 2013 Austrian parliamentary election campaign, we show that...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Political communication 2017-07, Vol.34 (3), p.367-384
Main Authors: Haselmayer, Martin, Wagner, Markus, Meyer, Thomas M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bias
Content analysis
election campaign
Gatekeeping
Mass media
Mass media effects
Media coverage
media gatekeeping
News
News media
news value
Parliamentary elections
partisan bias
Partisanship
Political campaigns
Political parties
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Summary:Parties try to shape media coverage in ways that are favorable to them, but what determines whether media outlets pick up and report on party messages? Based on content analyses of 1,496 party press releases and 6,512 media reports from the 2013 Austrian parliamentary election campaign, we show that media coverage of individual party messages is influenced not just by news factors, but also by partisan bias. The media are therefore more likely to report on messages from parties their readers favor. Importantly, this effect is greater rather than weaker when these messages have high news value. These findings have important implications for understanding the media's role in elections and representative democracies in general.
ISSN:1058-4609
1091-7675
DOI:10.1080/10584609.2016.1265619