Parliamentary Questions, Newspaper Coverage and Consumer Confidence in Times of Crisis: A Cross-National Comparison

• In Event: New Research on Agenda Setting

Abstract

This paper investigates the interaction between parliamentary questions, newspaper coverage on the economic crisis and consumer confidence. It focuses on France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands for the period 2005-2016. Based on insights from political agenda setting and media effects research it expects multi-directional relationships to be present. Parliamentary records and newspaper archives are used to analyse the monthly amount of attention for the crisis. Pooled time series fixed effects models and vector autoregression analyses are used to demonstrate that indeed, politicians, journalists and citizens depend on each other, but also that remarkable cross-national differences exist. In the countries where the economy was severely damaged by the crisis (France and Spain) consumer confidence exerted the strongest influence, while in the countries that were less affected by the crisis (Germany and the Netherlands) newspaper coverage was leading.

Authors

• Rens Vliegenthart, U of Amsterdam

• Alyt Damstra, Amsterdam School of Communication Research