The Role of the Media in the Personalisation of Politics: A Comparative Approach​

In the last decades, attitudes towards party leaders are believed to have become a powerful factor of vote choice. The goal of this article is to understand whether and how the media contributes to this personalization of politics in different political and media landscapes across Europe. I will start by testing empirically the assumption that exposure to the media increases the importance of leader characteristics in terms of vote choice, controlling for other know explanatory factors. Then, information about the content and style of the specific media outlets used by voters during the campaigns, as well as on country-specific characteristics of the different political and media systems, is added to the analytical model. This innovative approach, that merges comparative data on electoral behaviour and new empirical data on media systems and outlets, will shed new light on the role of the media in the process of personalization of politics.​