Frank Esser

Thomas Hanitzsch

The Handbook of Comparative Communication Research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of comparative communication research. It fills an obvious gap in the literature and offers an extensive and interdisciplinary discussion of the general approach of comparative research, its prospect and problems as well as its applications in crucial sub-fields of communications. The first part of the volume charts the state of the art in the field; the second section introduces relevant areas of communication studies where the comparative approach has been successfully applied in recent years; the third part offers an analytical review of conceptual and methodological issues; and the last section proposes a roadmap for future research.

The Handbook of Comparative Communication Research

Hanspeter Kriesi

Sandra Lavenex

Jörg Matthes

Daniel Bochsler

Marc Bühlmann

This book provides a comprehensive overview over the models of contemporary democracy, its social, cultural, economic and political prerequisites, empirically existing varieties, and the two major challenges – globalization and mediatization – confronting established democracies today. As the boundaries of the national political communities increasingly dissolve, democracy as we know it is put into question. Similarly, as the role of the media in politics increases, the way established democracies function is being transformed. The book covers the transformation of established democracies, democracy's global expansion into new countries, as well as its spread into supranational polities such as the European Union. It confronts head on democracy's constantly changing nature; its diversity of institutions and practices; its repeated need to respond to exogenous challenges and, most importantly, its perpetually unsatisfactory quest to make 'real-existing democracy' conform better to 'potentially ideal democracy.'

Democracy in the Age of Globalization and Mediatization

Carsten Reinemann

Claes De Vreese

Jesper Stromback

Toril Aalberg

In an increasing number of countries around the world, populist leaders, political parties and movements have gained prominence and influence, either by electoral successes on their own or by influencing other political parties and the national political discourse. While it is widely acknowledged that the media and the role of communication more broadly are key to understanding the rise and success of populist leaders, parties and movements, there is however very little research on populist political communication, at least in the English-speaking research literature. Originating from a research project funded by the European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research (COST), this book seeks to advance this research. It includes examinations 24 European countries, and focuses on three areas within the context of populism and populist political communication: populist actors as communicators, the media and populism and citizens and populism.

Populist Political Communication in Europe

James Stanyer

Claes H. de Vreese

The studies in this volume conceptualize populism as a type of political communication and investigate it comparatively, focusing on (a) politicians’ and journalists’ perceptions, (b) media coverage, and (c) effects on citizens. This book presents findings from several large-scale internationally comparative empirical studies, funded by the European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research (COST), focusing on communication and the media within the context of populism and populist political communication in Europe. The studies are based on comparative interview studies with journalists and politicians, a large-scale comparative content analysis, and a comparative cross-country experiment using nationally representative online-surveys over 15 countries. The book also includes advice for stakeholders like politicians, the media, and citizens about how to deal with the challenge of populist political communication. This enlightening volume is ‘populist’ in the best sense and will be an essential text for any scholar in political science, communication science, media studies, sociology and philosophy with an interest in populism and political communication. It does not assume specialist knowledge and will remain accessible and engaging to students, practitioners and policymakers.

Comparing Actor Perceptions, Media Coverage, and Effects on Citizens in Europe

Communicating Populism

David Nicolas Hopmann

Claes de Vreese

Comparing Political Journalism is a systematic, in-depth study of the factors that shape and influence political news coverage today. Using techniques drawn from the growing field of comparative political communication, an international group of contributors analyse political news content drawn from newspapers, television news, and news websites from 16 countries, to assess what kinds of media systems are most conducive to producing quality journalism. Underpinned by key conceptual themes, such as the role that the media are expected to play in democracies and quality of coverage, this analysis highlights the fragile balance of news performance in relation to economic forces. A multitude of causal factors are explored to explain key features of contemporary political news coverage, such as Strategy and Game Framing, Negativity, Political Balance, Personalization, Hard and Soft News Comparing Political Journalism offers an unparalleled scope in assessing the implications for the ongoing transformation of Western media systems, and addresses core concepts of central importance to students and scholars of political communication world-wide.

Comparing Political Journalism

Jesper Strömbäck

Over time and across Western democracies, the media has become increasingly influential, and a great deal more political processes have become altered, shaped or structured by the media and the perceived need of individuals, organizations and social systems to communicate with or through the media. The key theoretical perspective to understand this process is mediatization. As a long-term process which has increased the importance of the media and their spill-over effects on political processes, institutions, organizations and actors, mediatization is one of the most important processes reshaping politics and transforming democracies across the Western world. While the theoretical perspective of mediatization has become increasingly popular in recent years, scholarly understanding of the mediatization process and its antecedents, consequences and contingencies are still hampered by unresolved questions and a lack of systematic empirical studies. This volume addresses this by bringing together contributions that analyze and investigate different facets of the mediatization of politics, making a significant contribution to our theoretical as well as empirical understanding of this process, and setting the agenda for further research. This book was originally published as two special issues, of Journalism Studies and Journalism Practice.

Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives

Making Sense of Mediatized Politics

Frank Esser

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