Overview
- Goes beyond the US dominance in this field, to present data from more than 10 Western Democracies, including the US, UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, Canada and Israel
- Contains some of the most influential and visible scholars in the field of media and politics both in Europe as in the US
- Uses a wide variety of rich datasets, including interviews with leading politicians and journalists in multiple countries, and a variety of research methods, ranging from in-depth case studies to experimental designs
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
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About this book
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.
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Keywords
Table of contents (14 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Conceptualizing Media Influence in Politics
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Front Matter
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The Media as a Source of Information
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Front Matter
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The Media as a Political Arena
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Front Matter
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Combining Information and Arena
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Reviews
“How Political Actors Use the Media’ is a unique and coherent collection of well written chapters focusing on a very important topic. The eminent list of editors and contributors are among the best scholars worldwide on this topic. Centred around four core questions on the relationship between media and politics, the chapters address different sub-questions, using different methods, and provide evidence from a range of countries. The editors’ mission, to show that the media have a double function for political actors, being both a source of information and an arena that they need to access, is forcefully accomplished! This book is likely to set an agenda for further research in this area and become the key reference point for such future work.” (Claes de Vreese, University of Amsterdam)
“This book offers a rich exploration of how politicians use the news media. A common ‘information and arena’ framework provides a degree of focus that is rare in edited volumes. The result is a richset of ideas about how to understand the media arena and its role in politics.” (Lance Bennett, University of Washington)
Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
Peter Van Aelst and Stefaan Walgrave are professors in political science at the University of Antwerp, Belgium and leading members of the research group ‘Media, Movements and Politics’(www.M2P.be). They have published widely on the relationship between media an d politics and the agenda-setting role of the media.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: How Political Actors Use the Media
Book Subtitle: A Functional Analysis of the Media’s Role in Politics
Editors: Peter Van Aelst, Stefaan Walgrave
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60249-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-60248-6Published: 19 October 2017
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-86817-2Published: 23 August 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-60249-3Published: 04 October 2017
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXI, 282
Number of Illustrations: 9 b/w illustrations
Topics: Media and Communication, European Politics, Journalism, US Politics, Cultural Policy and Politics