Cover not available
Article published In:
Mass Media Effects and the Political Agenda: Assessing its Scope and Conditions
Edited by Ana Maria Belchior, Peter Van Aelst, José Santana-Pereira and Patrick Merle
[The Agenda Setting Journal 4:1] 2020
► pp. 43–63

Do media systems matter?

Media system characteristics and the media’s impact on the political agenda in Europe

| CIES-IUL, ISCTE-IUL

This article reports a comparative analysis of the media’s political agenda setting capacity in 27 European media systems, aimed at testing the hypothesis that the magnitude of this phenomenon is moderated by factors such as development of the press markets, journalist professionalization, strength of public television or political pluralism. The empirical analysis relies on data collected by the expert survey European Media Systems Survey, the World Association of Newspapers, the European Audiovisual Observatory, and the research project Providing an Infrastructure for Research on Electoral Democracy in the European Union (PIREDEU). Results show that political agenda setting is perceived as more common in press markets in which newspapers work as means of horizontal communication (and are, as subsystem, politically imbalanced), but that journalist professionalization and strength of public broadcasting systems foster political agenda setting effects.

Keywords: political agenda setting, media system characteristics, expert survey
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Media systems characteristics and why they matter for political agenda setting
  • 3.Method, data, variables
  • 4.Results
  • 5.Discussion of results
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 April 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/asj.19003.san
References
Aarts, K., Fladmoe, A., & Strömbäck, J.
(2012) Media, political trust and political knowledge: A comparative perspective. In T. Aalberg & J. Curran (Eds.), How media inform democracy: A comparative approach (pp. 98–118). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Aarts, K., & Semetko, H. A.
(2003) The divided electorate: Media use and political involvement. Journal of Politics 65(3), 759–784. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Adserà, A., Boix, C., & Payne, M.
(2000) Are you being served? Political Accountability and Quality of Government. Inter-American Development Bank Working Paper 438. New York: IADB. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bartels, L. M.
(1996) Politicians and the press: Who leads, who follows? Unpublished conference paper.Google Scholar
Black, E. R., & Snow, P.
(1982) The political agendas of three newspapers and city governments. Canadian Journal of Communication, 8(2), 11–25. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brüggemann, M., Engesser, S., Büchel, F., Humprecht, E., & Castro, L.
(2014) Hallin and Mancini revisited: Four empirical types of Western media systems. Journal of Communication, 641, 1037–1065. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cook, F. L., Tyler, T. R., Goetz, E. G., Gordon, M. T., Protess, D., Leff, D. R., & Molotch, H. L.
(1983) Media and agenda setting: Effects on the public, interest group leaders, policy makers, and policy. Public Opinion Quarterly, 471, 16–35. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Curran, J., Iyengar, S., Lund, A. B., & Salovaara-Moring, I.
(2009) Media system, public knowledge and democracy: A comparative study. European Journal of Communication, 24(1), 5–26. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Davis, A.
(2007) Investigating journalist influences on political issue agendas at Westminster. Political Communication, 24(2), 181–99. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
EAO – European Audiovisual Observatory
(2010) Yearbook 2010 – Television in 36 states. Strasbourg: EAO.Google Scholar
EES – European Election Study
(2009) European Parliament election study 2009, Voter study. Available at [URL]
Green-Pedersen, C., & Stubager, R.
(2010) The political conditionality of mass media influence: When do parties follow mass media attention? British Journal of Political Science, 40(3), 663–677. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hallin, D. C., & Mancini, P.
(2004) Comparing media systems: Three models of media and politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2017) Ten years after Comparing Media Systems: What have we learned? Political Communication, 34(2), 155–171. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Helfer, L.
(2016) Media effects on politicians: An individual-level political agenda setting experiment. International Journal of Press/Politics, 21(2), 233–252. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jones, B. D., & Baumgartner, F. R.
(2005) The politics of attention. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kriesi, H.
(2004) Comparing mass communication systems: Media formats, media contents and media processes. In F. Esser & B. Pfetsch (Eds.), Comparing political communication: Theories, cases and challenges (pp. 64–86). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lengauer, G., P. Donges, & Plasser, F.
(2014) Media power in politics. In B. Pfetsch (Ed.), Political communication cultures in Europe: Attitudes of political actors and journalists in nine countries (pp. 171–195). Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Maurer, P.
(2011) Explaining perceived media influence in politics: An analysis of the interplay of context and attitudes in four European democracies. Publizistik, 56(1), 27–50. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Midtbø, T., Walgrave, S., Van Aelst, P., & Christens, D. A.
(2014) Do the media set the agenda of parliament or is it the other way around? Agenda interactions between MPs and mass media. In K. Deschouwer & S. Depauw (Eds.), Representing the people. A survey among members of statewide and substate parliaments (pp. 188–208). Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mortensen, P. B., Green-Pedersen, C., Breeman, G., Chaqués-Bonafont, L., Jennings, W., John, P., Palau, A. M., & Timmermans, A.
(2011) Comparing government agendas: Executive speeches in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Denmark. Comparative Political Studies, 44(8), 973–1000. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Norris, P., & Inglehart, R.
(2007) Silencing dissent. The impact of restrictive media environments on regime support. Working Paper.Google Scholar
Patterson, T. E.
(2000) The United States: News in a free-market society. In R. Gunther & A. Mughan (Eds.), Democracy and the media: A comparative perspective. (pp. 241–264). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Popescu, M., Gosselin, T., & Santana-Pereira, J.
(2010) European media systems survey 2010. Data set. Colchester, UK: Department of Government, University of Essex. URL: [URL]
Popescu, M., Toka, G., Gosselin, T., & Santana-Pereira, J.
(2011) European media systems survey 2010: Results and documentation. Colchester, UK: Department of Government, University of Essex. URL: [URL]
Popescu, M., & Toka, G.
(2008) The impact of media systems on the making of informed election outcomes. Working Paper presented at the Electoral Behaviour Researchers Colloquium. Florence: European University Institute.
Santana-Pereira, J. A. A.
(2012) Media systems, information environments and media effects: A comparative approach to the agenda setting hypothesis. PhD dissertation. Florence: European University Institute.Google Scholar
Santana-Pereira, J.
(2015) Variety of media systems in third-wave democracies. In J. Zielonka (Ed.), Media and politics in new democracies: Europe in a comparative perspective (pp. 231–247). Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2016) The Portuguese media system and the normative roles of the media: A comparative view. Análise Social, 221(4), 780–801.Google Scholar
Schmitt-Beck, R.
(2004) Political communication effects. The impact of mass media and personal conversations on voting. In F. Esser & B. Pfetsch (Eds.), Comparing political communication: Theories, cases and challenges (pp. 293–322). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Semetko, H. A., Blumler, J. G., Gurevitch, M., Weaver, D. H., & Barkin, S.
(2013) The formation of campaign agendas: A comparative analysis of party and media roles in recent American and British elections. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sevenans, J., & Vliegenthart, R.
(2016) Political agenda setting in Belgium and the Netherlands: The moderating role of conflict framing. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 93(1), 187–203. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sevenans, J.
(2018) One concept, many interpretations: The media’s causal roles in political agenda setting processes. European Political Science Review, 10(2), 245–265. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Strömbäck, J., & Dimitrova, D. V.
(2006) Political and media systems matter. A comparison of election news coverage in Sweden and the United States. International Journal of Press/Politics, 11(4), 131–147. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van Aelst, P., & Walgrave, S.
(2011) Minimal or massive? The political agenda setting power of the mass media according to different methods. International Journal of Press/Politics, 16(3), 295–313. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2016) Political agenda setting by the mass media: Ten years of research, 2005–2015. In N. Zahariadis (Ed.), Handbook of public policy agenda setting (pp. 157–179). Cheltenham, Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van Dalen, A., & Van Aelst, P.
(2014) The media as political agenda-setters: Journalists’ perceptions of media power in eight west European countries. West European Politics, 37(1), 42–64. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van Kempen, H.
(2007) Media-party parallelism and its effects: A cross-national comparative study. Political Communication, 24(3), 303–320. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vesa, J., Blomberg, H., & Kroll, C.
(2015) Minimal and massive! Politicians’ views on the media’s political agenda setting power revisited. International Journal of Press/Politics, 20(3), 279–296. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vliegenthart, R., & Montes, N. M.
(2014) How political and media system characteristics moderate interactions between newspapers and parliaments: Economic crisis attention in Spain and the Netherlands. International Journal of Press/Politics, 19(3), 318–339. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vliegenthart, R., Walgrave, S., Baumgartner, F. R., Bevan, S., Breunig, C., Brouard, S., Chaqués, L., Grossman, E., Jennings, W., Mortensen, P., Palau, A. M., Sciarini, P., & Tresch, A.
(2016) Do the media set the parliamentary agenda? A comparative study in seven countries. European Journal of Political Research, 55(2), 293–301. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Voltmer, K.
(2000) Structures of diversity of press and broadcasting systems: The institutional context of political communication in Western Democracies. Discussion Paper FS III 00–201. Berlin: WZB.Google Scholar
Walgrave, S.
(2008) Again the almighty mass media? A subjective assessment of the media’s political agenda setting power by politicians and journalists in Belgium. Political Communication, 25(4), 445–459. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Walgrave, S., Soroka, S., & Nuytemans, M.
(2008) The mass media’s political agenda-setting power. A longitudinal analysis of media, parliament, and government in Belgium (1993 to 2000). Comparative Political Studies, 41(6), 814–836. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Walgrave, S., & Van Aelst, P.
(2006) The contingency of the mass media’s political agenda setting power: Toward a preliminary theory. Journal of Communication, 561, 88–109. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
WAN – World Association of Newspapers
(2010) World Press Trends – 2010 edition. Paris: WAN.Google Scholar
Wolfe, M., Jones, B. D., & Baumgartner, F.
(2013) A failure to communicate: Agenda setting in media and policy studies. Political Communication, 30(2), 175–192. DOI logoGoogle Scholar