Comparing Political Journalism

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.

Claes de Vreese is Professor and Chair of Political Communication at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He is the founding Director of the Center for Politics and Communication (www.polcomm.org). His most recent book isPolitical Journalism in Comparative Perspective (2014, with Erik Albak, Arjen van Dalen and Nael Jebril).

Frank Esser is Professor and Chair of International & Comparative Media Research at the University of Zurich, Swizterland. He co-directs the National Research Center on the Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century (NCCR Democracy). His most recent book is Mediatization of Politics (2014, with Jesper Stromback).

David Nicolas Hopmann is Professor with special responsibilities at the Centre for Journalism and the Department of Political Science at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Denmark.