THE IMPACT OF TELEVISION ON POLITICS - Partial analysis of the French 2012 campaign (original) (raw)
Images Speak Louder than Words: Television coverage of the French presidential elections of 1981
This present paper sets out to examine empirically how closely this widespread impression of bias corresponds to the reality of television coverage; or rather, less ambitiously, since one can hardly claim that there are ready-made or accepted tests of objectivity, impartiality, or fairness of political coverage on television, it will attempt to apply to the French situation criteria and methods of approach culled from various British analyses of television's end product – its programmes.3 The study is limited mainly to TF1's andA2’s coverage of politics, current affairs and the Presidential election campaign in the first few months of 1981, and does not include the official election broadcasts controlled by the candidates or their party supporters. The tests applied to the coverage fall into the following categories: range and equity of access to television by the different political actors, technical production choices and editorial decisions, agenda setting (choice of issues), and interviewing styles.
Media and politics in french political science
European Journal of Political Research, 1998
The study of the relationship between media and politics has long been marginal in French political science. The take-off of research has been stimulated by the impact of the Presidential election under the Fifth republic and by the increasing role of television and spindoctors in this new electoral context. If French studies on political communication converge with international research, they are also characterised by strong peculiarities. The material of case-studies is not campaign-centred, but gives room to various TV programmes, to a wide range of media uses by French politicians. The contribution of historians, the influence of a literary tradition of 'textual' analysis of political speech are important. The publishing of books on this topic also reveals a surprisingly intense participation from spin-doctors, journalists and even politicians. Three main 'schools' are contributing to the dynamics of French research. Linked to the tradition of semiological and literary studies the first one focuses on the study of political discourse in the media. Merging the legacy of English-speaking studies and the French tradition of electoral studies a second one develops an analysis of the campaigning process and of its effects. More recently, a new generation of researchers has widened the object of research to the complex network of relations between politicians, journalists and consultant. Linking successfully the most recent developments or international research and the peculiarities of academic tradition, research on political communication appears as one of the most dynamic areas of French political science.
Spanish Audience Interest in Televised Politics: from electoral debates to politainment
2020
espanolLa politica televisada se ha convertido en un eje imprescindible en la planificacion de las campanas electorales de cualquier partido politico. La television es la principal fuente de informacion durante los procesos electorales y los espacios de politainment se han erigido en citas decisivas para los candidatos. Este articulo realiza un analisis diacronico de la evolucion de las audiencias de los debates televisados en Espana para comprobar si el paso del tiempo ha erosionado este formato. La muestra esta formada por los diez debates electorales entre los aspirantes a presidir el Gobierno de Espana celebrados hasta abril de 2019. Asimismo, presta atencion a la integracion de otras pantallas en la difusion y visionado del debate electoral como Twitter. Los resultados de dicha investigacion demuestran el interes de la audiencia espanola por este formato desde su primera emision en 1993 hasta la actualidad, convirtiendolos en verdaderos hitos televisivos. Ademas, los candidatos...
The Political Legacy of Entertainment TV Online Appendix ∗
2019
∗We thank Alberto Alesina, Filipe Campante, Antonio Ciccone, Stefano DellaVigna, Ruben Enikolopov, Ray Fisman, Greg Huber, Brian Knight, Valentino Larcinese, Marco Manacorda, Torsten Persson, Barbara Petrongolo, Andrei Shleifer, Francesco Sobbrio, Joachim Voth, David Weil, Katia Zhuravskaya, four anonymous referees, and seminar participants at Bocconi, CREI, NYU, MIT, Sciences Po, Brown, Dartmouth, Sorbonne, WZB, Surrey, Queen Mary, Yale, EIEF, LSE, Namur, Bank of Italy, Warwick, UPF, and participants at the AEA Meetings, the EUI Conference on Communications and Media Markets, and the Lisbon Meeting on Institutions and Political Economy for helpful comments. We are very grateful to Ben Olken and Ruben Enikolopov for their help with the ITM software. We thank Nicola D’Amelio and Giuseppe Piraino for their assistance with data collection, Giovanni Sciacovelli for excellent research assistance, and Laura Litvine for her outstanding help with the digitization of the transmitters data. R...
Television viewing and voting 1972-1989
Electoral Studies, 1992
Some of the earliest and most persistent concerns about mass communication (and television in particular) revolve around its implications for the electoral process. On one hand, the idea of an informed and active citizenry is central to democratic principles and practices, and no technology in human history has had the potential to inform and activate as many people as quickly and as pervasively as television. On the other hand, the sheer volume of information television disseminates, the amount of time people attend to it, and the specific images of political phenomena television selects to present (or fails to present) can all have the opposite function-television may narcotize the electorate, promote cynicism and disaffection, inhibit interest and the acquisition of information, and ultimately suppress participation in a democratic political system.
Television Campaigning Varies Widely
Move over. U.S.A. Elections '92 is more than an American show. Throughout the world from Austria to Zambia, people are electing their leaders. But the big story in many countries is often not the candidates but rather how television intrudes on the democratic process, especially debates and campaign advertising.
Journal of Communication, 2007
This study updates and builds on Hallin's landmark investigation of sound-bite news by documenting the prevalence of candidate image bites, where candidates are shown but not heard (as opposed to being shown and heard), in general election news over 4 election cycles. A visual analysis of broadcast network (ABC, CBS, and NBC) news coverage of the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 U.S. presidential elections finds that image bites constituted a greater percentage of total campaign coverage than sound bites, with candidates appearing in image bites significantly more than sound bites. Even as candidate sound bites continue to shrink over time, image-bite time is increasing in duration-and candidates are being presented in image bites almost twice as much as journalists. Sound bites are also found to be largely attack and issue focused. Based on these findings, we call for greater appreciation of visual processing, nonverbal communication, and voter learning from television news in the study of media and politics.