Personalized media attention in constituency campaigns – A candidate perspective

To what extent and under what conditions do local media pay attention to constituency candidates in election campaigns? This paper explores this question from a candidate perspective. In this vein, it advances from candidate survey data to assess the perceived level of access to local media and main predictors in this regard. Specifically, we ask about the role of electoral factors such as marginality and the effective number of local parties as opposed to candidate level factors such as incumbency and candidates’ campaign strategies, i.e. whether candidates aimed to run personalized campaigns or rather not. This analysis contributes to broader debates about decentralized forms of personalized politics, where MPs and constituency candidates are assumed to take center stage vis-à-vis their parties. The paper stresses the need to better understand the role of the media in this regard and why – from the candidates’ perspective – they augment or downplay candidate saliency in campaign contexts. We draw from the German case, and the German Longitudinal Election Study in particular, as an unlikely case since it pitches personalized electoral rules against strong party organizations.