Successful agenda-building? An analysis of foundations‘ issue ownership in national newspapers

Whether and how political actors are successful at being covered by the media in the light of their favorable issues has long been the focus of political communication research. While the extant literature has taught us a great deal about the issues surrounding the media coverage of electoral candidates or parties, little is known about the issues facing groups of the civil society, such as foundations, with regard to media coverage – even though an issue convergent media coverage is of relevance for them as well: In this way groups such as these can position themselves as experts and can therefore commend themselves to politicians or third parties for cooperation or as advisors. Furthermore issue convergent media coverage can help to draw attention to certain issues that need to be discussed politically and/or publicly. The aim of the present study is to identify and compare the issue agendas of foundations and their media coverage through a content analysis of foundations’ news releases and the coverage of national newspapers. The results indicate that the issue convergence between news releases and media coverage varies depending on the type and characteristic of the analyzed foundation and the newspaper.