2018/11/13 by Philip Baugut, Sebastian Scherr
Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Media Studies and Communication #Social Media and Politics
paper · doi:10.1080/10584609.2018.1517844
openalex publication_date 2018/11/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The normative question regarding whether the media should have more or less impact on politics, as viewed by politicians and journalists, is important assuming that norms about media influences can influence behaviors. The present study is the first that combines individual and structural factors that explain political actors’ and journalists’ normative views on the media’s influence on politics. Based on a conceptualization of political communication cultures, representative micro-level survey data from more than 600 political actors and journalists within 52 German cities were combined with macro-level indicators for the political and media competition in each city. Multilevel analyses show that interactions between the actors’ characteristics and their competitive working conditions help explain their normative evaluations of the media’s influence on politics. However, individual characteristics such as actors’ role conceptions influence normative views more so than media and political competition do.