Investigating and Explaining Local Political Communication Cultures in a Comparative Analysis

• In Event: Comparative Perspectives in Political Communication Research

Abstract

Relationships of political actors and journalists are a central topic of political communication research. However, the explanation of different patterns of interactions found in different contexts remains a challenge met in this study. Theoretically, we draw on the concept of political communication cultures and transfer the logic of internationally comparative research to the local level to analyze patterns and causes of politics-media interactions. Empirically, we integrate micro-level data from a representative survey of more than 600 political actors and journalists in 52 German cities with macro-level data describing the social, political and media contexts. This allows, first, to describe patterns of relationships at the under-researched local level regarding proximity, dependency, and seclusiveness of the politics-media milieu; second, to investigate potential micro- and macro-level causes of those patterns. We show that different dimensions of relationships are affected by different factors but that media and political competition seem to be significant predictors.

Authors

• Philip Baugut, LMU Munich

• Nayla Fawzi, U of Munich

• Carsten E. Reinemann, U of Munich