Political Agenda Setting

Abstract

The study into the influence of media on politics, especially from an agenda’s perspective, has seen a major expansion in the past decade. The papers brought together in this special panel are a clear reflection of this. We see how they address the big question on mass media’s effect on politics and do so in either a more ‘traditional’ manner, analysing media attention and political content on an aggregate level, or expand in different ways. One paper focuses on framing and a second one takes stock of the new media environment politicians act in. New individual-level moderators (gender) are proposed, and the final paper picks up the broader question of parties' responsiveness to incoming signals. All of the paper use advanced content analytical methods, and together they provide a solid overview of the current state of affairs when it comes to addressing the question when and how media matter for politics in a European context.