The Media’s Role in Legislative Processes: A Case Study Approach

Although media effects on politicians and politics are studied extensively, studies analyzing the media’s role in legislative processes are rare. In what way and to what extent does media attention matter for lawmaking? And are the media independent actors, or mainly a channel of communication for other actors? Media attention may influence the duration of legislative processes, the content of and the support for bills, by paying attention to issues and/or framing them in a particular way. To explore this I adopt a case study approach and combine chronologically conducted content analyses with semi-structured interviews. As a most likely case of mediatization, I study the process that led to the legal regulation of (semi-)public officials’ remuneration in the Netherlands as from January 2013. This process tracing method allows me to develop a tentative outline of an empirically grounded theory that explains both when, why and how media influence lawmaking.