Frame Edition: Choices of Journalists

Abstract

In this chapter, we analyze the choices of journalists. We find that they tend to balance out the messages of each camp in all three campaigns and that the frames of powerful actors are present in the debate the more they are emphasized and the more prominent the speaker is. Furthermore, journalists investigate official claims and help the reader to understand the topic, particularly in the complex issue. By comparing dialogue in the news media and in the media input, we see that political actors anticipate the media logic and increase dialogue in the media input correspondingly. In the free news media, dialogue is significantly lower than in other media types. In other campaign types (elections or public debates (especially scandals), less balanced coverage and more journalistic interpretation is likely. If journalists are less distant, less balanced news, a narrower range of views and more interpretation seems to be possible.