Winning Voters' Attention. Candidates, Media and Candidates' Media Coverage

Abstract

The information environment is vital to citizens’ capacity to learn about politics, their ability to link political preferences to parties and policies and assess the performances of institutions and political actors. This environment is also important for parties and candidates: their electoral success is likely to be influenced by how successful they are at being visible in an increasingly diverse media environment and at getting their message across. In the run-up to an election, political actors compete for the attention of voters by deploying an array of communication strategies. Besides different campaign tools, parties and candidates also rely on ‘second hand’ campaign coverage provided by the mass media. The interplay between first and second hand campaign coverage plays a crucial role in determining election outcomes. Are candidates equally likely to maximise first as well as second hand coverage? How do they capitalize? Is there a divide in candidates’ likelihood of getting their message across? This panel invites papers that contribute to answering these questions by providing recent empirical evidence. It also welcomes papers that focus on how political context might affect candidates’ communication strategies and their mass media coverage during electoral campaigns.

Title	Details
Candidates and Parties in the Media and the Voter’s Mind: Whose Reputation is Determined by Whom?	View Paper Details
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Changing and Differing Media Environments: Why Media System Characteristics Matter for Citizens	View Paper Details