Articles and Book Chapters by Peter Aelst
This article studies the effectiveness of Flemish celebrities as endorsers in non-profit campaign... more This article studies the effectiveness of Flemish celebrities as endorsers in non-profit campaigns. Six existing Flemish campaigns were selected and tested on the public in three regards: the recognition of the campaign, the ability to name the organisation behind it and the intention to support the organisation. Recognising specific differences between the campaigns, results show that celebrity endorsed campaigns seem to reach a wider, younger target audience, while non-celebrity based campaigns target a rather ‘classic’ donor audience.
Papers by Peter Aelst
Good News?: The Development of the Political Information Environment in Europe Over the Past Four Decades
miun.se. Publications. ...
Demonstrations against the War on Iraq, 2010
Political Communication, 2015
Election campaigns are expected to inform voters about parties' issue positions, thereby increasi... more Election campaigns are expected to inform voters about parties' issue positions, thereby increasing voters' ability to influence future policy and thus enhancing the practice of democratic government. We argue that campaign learning is not only contingent on voters' characteristics and different sources of information, but also on how parties communicate their issue positions in election debates. We combine a two-wave panel survey with content analysis data of three televised election debates. In cross-classified multilevel auto-regression models we examine the influence of these debates in the 2010 Dutch parliamentary election campaign on voters' knowledge of the positions of eight parties on three issues. The Dutch multiparty system allows us to separate voters' ability to position parties from their accuracy in ordering these parties. We reach three main conclusions. First, this study shows that voters become more able and accurate during the campaign. However, these campaign learning effects erode after the elections. Second, whereas voters' attention to campaigns consistently contributes to their ability to position parties, its effect on accuracy is somewhat less consistent. Third, televised election debates contribute to what voters learn. Parties that advocate their issue positions in the debates stimulate debate viewers' ability to position these parties on these issues. In the face of the complexity of campaigns and debates in multiparty systems, campaigns are more likely to boost voters' subjective ability to position parties than their accuracy.
In the research field of media and politics the agenda-setting approach is one of the main accoun... more In the research field of media and politics the agenda-setting approach is one of the main accounts. It theorizes about the impact of mass media coverage on political priorities. Yet, agenda-setting offers a one-sided perspective. It only takes into account the impact of media on politics and not the other way around and it only deals with positive power and neglects negative power that is the power to prevent other actors from devoting attention to specific issues. In this paper we develop a broader typology of media-politics interactions dealing with both direction of influence and with positive and negative impact. Depending on the context, we expect political actors or the media to dominate the interaction process. We test this theory relying on comparative data in five small European countries and drawing on a survey among MPs.
Only few studies have investigated media coverage of one and the same election campaign in a cros... more Only few studies have investigated media coverage of one and the same election campaign in a cross-national, comparative perspective. This study takes the 2008 US Presidential election as a case and investigates the way it is covered in eight European countries. We explain differences in visibility, tone and framing by considering country characteristics, media features and temporal aspects. Results demonstrate
In the research field of media and politics the agenda-setting approach is one of the main accoun... more In the research field of media and politics the agenda-setting approach is one of the main accounts. It theorizes about the impact of mass media coverage on political priorities. Yet, agenda-setting offers a one-sided perspective. It only takes into account the impact of media on politics and not the other way around and it only deals with positive power and neglects negative power -that is the power to prevent other actors from devoting attention to specific issues. In this paper we develop a broader typology of media-politics interactions dealing with both direction of influence and with positive and negative impact. Depending on the context, we expect political actors or the media to dominate the interaction process. We test this theory relying on comparative data in five small European countries and drawing on a survey among MPs.
Dimensions of Knowledge: The Underlying Structure of Knowledge Indicators in a Comparative Perspective
Abstract will be provided by author.
Synopsis: The rise in demonstrations activism raises important questions about the causes of this... more Synopsis: The rise in demonstrations activism raises important questions about the causes of this phenomenon, and in particular concerning who engages in demonstrations. Three contrasting accounts exist in the literature explaining and interpreting demonstration activism: disaffection, strategic resource, and contextual approaches. After comparing rise in protest politics in two dozen older and newer democracies, the study focuses upon Belgium, a postindustrial society exemplifying these developments. The social background, attitudinal, and behavioral characteristics of demonstrators are scrutinized drawing upon the Belgian general election survey of 1999 and on a unique dataset of surveys conducted with the participants of seven different demonstrations in Belgium (1998-2001). The study establishes that, compared with party members and civic joiners, demonstrators are similar to the Belgian population and there is little evidence that Belgian demonstrators are disaffected radicals....
Mediatization and Political Agenda Setting: Changing Issue Priorities?
The mass media's political agenda-setting power Towards an integration of the available evidence1
The Media as Political Agenda-Setters: Journalists’ Perceptions of Media Power in Eight West European Countries
West European Politics, 2014
Members of Parliament: Equal Competitors for Media Attention? An Analysis of Personal Contacts Between MPs and Political Journalists in Five European Countries
Political Communication, 2010
ABSTRACT Power relations between politicians and journalists are often depicted as an ongoing tan... more ABSTRACT Power relations between politicians and journalists are often depicted as an ongoing tango with one actor leading the other. This study analyzes interactions between politicians and journalists not by posing the question of who leads whom, but rather by investigating which politicians are invited to dance in the first place, and which are better positioned to take the lead. Building upon theories and past research into press–government relations, comparative politics, and an economic perspective on journalist–source relations, three groups of hypotheses on a personal, party, and political system level are derived and tested using a unique survey with members of parliament (MPs) in five democratic corporatist countries (Belgium, The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark). The results display a similar pattern in all five countries where parliamentary experience and institutional position increase the frequency of contacts that MPs have with journalists. While these party variables have a more modest influence on the frequency of contacts, it is also shown that there are clear differences between countries attributed to parliament size in general and higher inter-MP competition in particular.
Political balance in the news: A review of concepts, operationalizations and key findings
Journalism, 2012
Balance is a notoriously difficult concept to operationalize. It has typically been investigated ... more Balance is a notoriously difficult concept to operationalize. It has typically been investigated by examining the issues raised in elections, as well as the volume and favorability of coverage of political actors. However, even after collecting these measures, it is difficult to determine precisely what would constitute ‘balanced’ coverage. Based on a comprehensive overview of previous research in western democracies,
Journal of Communication, 2006
Recently the study of the relationship between the media and the political agenda has received gr... more Recently the study of the relationship between the media and the political agenda has received growing attention of both media and political science scholars. However, these research efforts have not led to a general discussion or a real theory on the media's political agenda setting power. This article first analytically confronts the often contradictory results of the available evidence. Then, it sketches the broad outline of a preliminary theory. Political agenda setting by the media is contingent upon a number of conditions. The input variables of the model are the kind of issues covered, the specific media outlet, and the sort of coverage. Political context variables, the features of the political actors at stake, are at the heart of the model. The model proposes five sorts of output ranging from no political adoption to fast substantial adoption of media issues.
INTERNET AND SOCIAL MOVEMENT ACTION REPERTOIRES
Information, Communication & Society, 2010
... A notable feature of recent public engagements with the internet is its use by a wide range o... more ... A notable feature of recent public engagements with the internet is its use by a wide range of ... By means of the open network of the internet, a diverse range of activists, groups and social ... In the next section, we will support our typology by giving multiple examples of how the ...
New media, new movements? The role of the internet in shaping the ‘anti‐globalization’ movement
Information, Communication & Society, 2002
Abstract Collective action and social movement protest has become commonplace in our &amp... more Abstract Collective action and social movement protest has become commonplace in our 'demonstration‐democracy'and no longer surprises the media or the public. However, as will be shown, this was not the case with the recent anti‐globalization protests that attracted ...
The International Journal of Press/Politics, 2012
Abstract This study examines the supply of political information programming across thirteen Euro... more Abstract This study examines the supply of political information programming across thirteen European broadcast systems over three decades. The cross-national and cross-temporal design traces the composition and development of political information environments with regard to the amount and placement of news and current affairs programs on the largest public and private television channels. It finds that the televisual information environments of Israel and Norway offer the most advantageous opportunity structure for informed ...
Uploads
Articles and Book Chapters by Peter Aelst
Papers by Peter Aelst