9,508 research outputs found
Contextualizing media behavior: Media environments and individuals’ media use in the European Union
No full textIndividuals in “freer” media environments are assumed to have better choices among media and are thus able to make better and more efficient use of media. Using the European Parliamentary Elections of 2009 as a highly visible political event, we find that, as expected, individuals use media to satisfy informational needs about the elections in highly “free” media environments (Hallin & Mancini, 2004). In addition, we find strong prima facie evidence that in “less free” media environments — distinguished by the strong alignment of parties, social and political cleavages, and media outlets — individuals also respond with higher information-seeking media behavior. For comparative media studies, by linking specific media environments to specific individual-level media behaviors, where media is used tells us more about how media is used
Institutions and Media Use in Democratizing Countries: The Czech-Slovak Case as a Quasi-Experiment
No full textUsing original survey data from the early democratization period in Central and Eastern Europe, I compare the choice of media for individuals’ informational demands in the context of differently evolved media environments. Using the quasi-experimental setting of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the findings show that individuals who express higher levels of interest in staying informed on politics were more likely to use public rather than privatizing media. Further, in the context of the multi-level design, this media preference is consistent regardless of the differing extents of privatization between the countries. This analysis adds further empirical evidence for the ongoing debate on the role of mass media and the process of political socialization in democratizing countries
Perceptions are everything: individuals’ normative attitudes toward inequality and political participation in Europe
No full textThe notion that national-level income inequality shapes individuals' traditional political participation choices, based on differences in individuals' income levels, is weakening. The inclusion of individuals' perceptions of and attitudes toward inequality has undermined two essential assumptions of this relationship, namely that all individuals can both correctly assess national-level inequality and that they respond to inequality in accordance with their socio-economic group. Using the European Values Surveys (1990-2017) in more than 40 countries, we examine inequality perceptions and political participation, including non-traditional political participation. We find that when individuals' normative inequality attitudes are introduced, (1) the interactions between individuals' income levels and changes in national-level income inequality nearly universally disappear. And more importantly, (2) normative attitudes have significant and consistent effects on political participation choices such that negative orientations toward inequality attenuate traditional forms of political participation and motivate a number of non-traditional forms
Information and Democracy: Fake News as Emotional Weapon
No full textDespite continued normative insistence in the Social Sciences, individuals’ access to and use of information has failed to be linked unequivocally to higher quality democratic outcomes. At the same time, ample evidence has been presented that the internet and social media in particular, continue to undermine rather than strengthen any substantive link between information and democracy. This chapter posits that fake news is the description of strategic emotional weapons that cultivates political division in order to maintain the status quo. Yet, despite this, fake news is merely a covariate, rather than a determinant, of the failed linkage between information and democracy
Matthew Henry: The Bible, Prayer, and Piety – A Tercentenary Celebration
No full textThe summer of 2014 marked the tercentenary of the death of Matthew Henry (1662–1714), a leading figure among early eighteenth-century Dissenters and author of the six-volume Exposition of the Old and New Testaments (1707–1714/25). This monumental work, which by 1855 had already been published in twenty-five different editions, attempted a peculiarly practical approach to the biblical text and continues to be widely used and readily accessible even today in both print and online versions. The theme of foreign (or ‘strange’) wives and Israelite intermarriage is one which occurs throughout the Hebrew Bible and, accordingly, throughout Matthew Henry’s commentary upon it. Where it appears, the practice of intermarriage is characterized by Henry as (at best) unwise and (at worst) a very real threat to both social and religious cohesion. This essay explores how Henry deals with the issue of ‘strange wives’, why he believes they continue to pose a threat, and (in view of the overall intention of his commentary) what ‘practical observations’ he offers to his reader as a result. In doing so it is argued that Henry’s commentary traces a thematic thread from the ante-diluvian age to the post-exilic period of calamities resulting from mixed marriages between ‘professors of religion’ and their ‘strange wives’
Replication Data for: Losers Together? Grand Coalitions in the EU member states
No full textOver the last two decades, the formation of grand coalitions has grown in the European Union (EU), even in countries with no previous political experience with them. Alongside a significant rise in both new and radical parties, grand coalitions signal the increasing fragmentation of contemporary European politics. We, therefore, investigate the electoral performance of both mainstream and new parties entering and leaving grand coalitions. We find that mainstream parties do not appear to enter grand coalitions after negative election results. They are, however, punished in the following elections, albeit not as heavily as previous findings have shown. This post-grand coalition electoral penalty is true for both major and minor grand coalition members. These findings contribute to the literature on party competition and provide insights into the choices mainstream parties’ have been making in response to recent and rapid changes in the electoral landscape of the EU
Media audiences and media consumption during political transitions : the case of Egypt
No full textPublication date: November 1, 2017This article examines the role of new media in countries in transition. Using original survey data from Egypt (2012), we examine individuals’ use of media to search for information following Egypt’s participation in the Arab Spring. There are two provocative findings. One, different media satisfy informational searches at local, regional and international levels. And two, the profiles of ‘new media’ users are the most distinct among all mediums, matching the participants in non-traditional forms of political participation, namely urban-living males with education and access to income. Thus, in contrast to the technological determinism of some optimistic ‘new media’ supporters, in countries with low access levels to connectivity, this may suggest an analytical shift from medium to user to better facilitate our understanding of the role of new media in countries in transition
The urban-rural divide: Perceptions of income and social inequality in Central and Eastern Europe
No full textA vast literature has related perceptions of income inequality to individuals' income: the higher the level of income, the less inequality is perceived. Here, examining the perceptions of income and social inequality, we argue that rural or urban residence affects both inequality perceptions and the impact of income on these perceptions. We test the theory using survey data from 12 Central and Eastern European countries and we find that income negatively affects inequality perceptions but only in urban areas. These findings confirm the importance of accounting for urbanity to understand what drives individuals' perceptions of inequality.</p
Public perceptions of the EU as a system of governance
No full textSince its inception, the European Union has stimulated many vigorous debates. This Living Review provides a state of the field perspective on the academic work that has been done to address the question of the perceptions of the European Union as a system of governance. It takes a broad scope in assessing the efforts of scholars and highlights significant theoretical and empirical contributions as well as identifying potential avenues for research. In order to understand perceptions of the EU, scholars have employed national-level frameworks of popular support, particularly partisanship and instrumental self-interest. As the number of members has increased, further research has taken a broader scope to include national identity, institutions, and attitudes regarding the normative and empirical function of both national and EU institutions. Additional works address political intermediaries such as parties, media, and elites. Finally, all of the works are fundamentally concerned with the supportive popular sentiment that underpins the EU’s legitimacy as a political institution. While there are far more works that can be practically included in this review, we have attempted to construct an overview based on the dimensions that define this research as set out by significant contributions at the core of this literature
Winning back votes from the far right: does the centre right's focus on immigration pay off?
No full textWith the rise of far-right parties in Europe during the 2000s, some centre-right parties spotted an opportunity to win back votes by pivoting towards immigration. James F Downes and Matthew Loveless find that they were more successful if they were out of government at the time. Incumbent centre-right parties, on the other hand, struggled to cut through on the issue
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