Who gets into the papers? Party campaign messages and the media

Parties and politicians want to get their messages across to the public, and the central means of doing so is by generating media coverage. In this project, we examine whether and how the media act as gatekeepers in choosing and filtering the messages that reach the public. How do characteristics of the outlet, the content, and the sponsor affect whether party messages are likely to get media attention? Our findings are based on quantitative content analyses of 1,496 party press releases and 6,512 media reports in a parliamentary, multiparty context. Our analyses suggest that (1) newspapers privilege messages depending on their party orientation, (2) messages are more likely to make it into the news if they contain key news factors and tap into concerns that are important to the media or other parties, and (3) party and government elites are more likely to get media attention for their messages than lower-ranked politicians. Moreover, it is troubling for the quality of political reporting that the media’s party-based biases appear to be stronger, not weaker, when press releases contain key news factors. Overall, these results confirm the relevance of party-media agenda-setting and gate-keeping for understanding political communication, shed light on the potential success of parties’ electoral strategies, and have broader implications for electoral fairness and political representation.