Adam Shehata

The Effects of Digital Media on Political Knowledge and Participation in Election Campaigns: Evidence From Panel Data

While the majority of previous research suggests there are positive relationships between digital media use and political participation and knowledge, most studies have relied on cross-sectional surveys and have thus not been able to firmly establish the chain of causality. Also, there is little research investigating use of different forms of digital media and their relative effects on political participation and knowledge. This study examines (a) the effects of digital media use on political participation and knowledge and (b) whether different forms of digital media use affect people differently. Drawing on two representative panel surveys, the study demonstrates that there are only weak effects of digital media use on political learning, but that the use of some digital media forms has appreciable effects on political participation.

Age and the effects of news media attention and social media use on political interest and participation : Do social media function as leveller?

This article investigates how media use differs across age groups- and whether this matters for people’s inclination to participate politically. More specifically, the study investigates the impact of social media use for political purposes and of attention to political news in traditional media, on political interest and offline political participation. The findings, based on a four-wave panel study conducted during the 2010 Swedish national election campaign, show (1) clear differences in media use between age groups and (2) that both political social media use and attention to political news in traditional media increase political engagement over time. Thus, this study suggests that frequent social media use among young citizens can function as a leveller in terms of motivating political participation.

Framing climate change : A study of US and Swedish press coverage of global warming

This comparative study investigates news coverage of climate change in the United States and Sweden. The main research question concerns the extent to which news coverage of climate change is influenced by domestic political elite discussion or the scientific consensus surrounding the issue. While there has been a widespread consensus in Sweden that climate change is (partly) caused by human activity and that there is an unquestionable need to take countermeasures, there has been substantial debate about the causes and the necessity of political action in the United States. Based on an extensive content analysis of 1785 articles over a 10-year period, as well as an intensive analysis of news coverage of the Kyoto and Bali summits, results show that media coverage is strikingly similar in these two countries, indicating a weak influence of national political elites on how climate change is framed in news coverage.

A Matter of Context: A Comparative Study of Media Environments and News Consumption Gaps in Europe

Research has shown that individual-level characteristics such as socioeconomic status and political interest are becoming more important as predictors of news consumption in a rapidly changing media environment. Despite this general trend, this article argues that the importance of individual-level predictors of news consumption varies between national media environments. We use extensive survey data from 16 European countries and multilevel modeling in order to investigate both contextual-level and cross-level effects on news consumption. The results show that media environment characteristics have additional effects on news consumption beyond the effects of individual-level characteristics such as education and political interest, but also moderating impacts on these individual-level predictors of news consumption. More specifically, national media environments characterized by higher levels of newspaper-centrism are related to smaller gaps in newspaper reading between those with high and low levels of education and political interest. Lower degrees of newspaper-centrism are, on the other hand, related to a weaker “lower-class bias” of television news and larger gaps in news consumption between those with and without high political interest. These findings are discussed in light of previous research on news consumption, knowledge, and participation gaps as well as cross-national comparative research.

Not (Yet) a New Era of Minimal Effects A Study of Agenda Setting at the Aggregate and Individual Levels

In recent years, profound media environmental changes have sparked a controversy regarding whether we are entering a new era of minimal effects. Focusing on one of the most important media effect theories, agenda setting, this study combines a panel survey and a media content analysis to test three claims derived from the new era of minimal effects discussion: (1) that recent media environmental changes have reduced the agenda setting influence of traditional news media to non-significance, (2) that increased opportunities for media choice have made partisan selective exposure the key mechanism behind media effects, and (3) that the availability of alternative online news sources reduces susceptibility to agenda setting effects from the traditional news media. Among other things, the results show that traditional news media still exert agenda-setting influence on both the aggregate and individual levels, but that these effects are weakened by use of multiple online news media. Overall, the results suggest that a generalized “we” have not (yet) entered a new era of minimal effects, and that certain media system characteristics are likely to condition the pace of any potential transition to a new minimal effects era.

Marking journalistic independence: Official dominance and the rule of product substitution in Swedish press coverage

Independence and autonomy from political power are core values among professional journalists in most western societies. At the same time, research has shown that news media organizations rely heavily on official actors for the construction of news. The purpose of this study is to analyse the nature of official dominance and manifestations of news media independence strategies in routine political press coverage in Sweden. Building upon past research on official dominance, objectivity rituals, indexing and the rule of product substitution — a set of hypotheses is derived and tested using a content analysis of 835 news stories published in Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet during a 15-week period in 2008. While official actors dominate news coverage both in terms of source use and story initiation, evidence for a rule of product substitution is found.

Framing the Mohammad cartoons issue: A cross-cultural comparison of Swedish and US press

The purpose of this article is to investigate how Swedish and US elite newspapers framed the publication of cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammad in a Danish newspaper in September 2005, and the events that ensued from that publication. These cartoons proved to be very controversial, and, since the original publication has been reprinted several times, continue to stir controversy. In order to investigate how different frames emerged in the news coverage, the study includes all news articles published in the selected newspapers during a six-month period from the first publication of the Mohammad cartoons. Methodologically, the study uses quantitative and qualitative content analysis. Theoretically, the study is based on framing theory and international news determinants. The results show some interesting differences as well as similarities. In the conclusions, four propositions that might be explored in future research are offered.The purpose of this article is to investigate how Swedish and US elite newspapers framed the publication of cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammad in a Danish newspaper in September 2005, and the events that ensued from that publication. These cartoons proved to be very controversial, and, since the original publication has been reprinted several times, continue to stir controversy. In order to investigate how different frames emerged in the news coverage, the study includes all news articles published in the selected newspapers during a six-month period from the first publication of the Mohammad cartoons. Methodologically, the study uses quantitative and qualitative content analysis. Theoretically, the study is based on framing theory and international news determinants. The results show some interesting differences as well as similarities. In the conclusions, four propositions that might be explored in future research are offered.

Pathways to Politics: How Media System Characteristics Can Influence Socioeconomic Gaps in Political Participation

This article addresses a key democratic question that has not been fully answered by political communication research: How do the news media influence gaps in participation between socioeconomic groups? The main purpose is to develop and propose an institutional framework for analyzing how the news media influence participation gaps in different countries. It is argued that past research on media malaise and mobilization effects has not paid attention to the joint influence of two media system characteristics: (1) the strength of media institutions with respect to influencing political participation and (2) the distinctiveness of their population base. European Social Survey data from four democratic corporatist countries are used to analyze both these dimensions of the institutional framework. The results indicate that newspapers and television news might have different influences on participation gaps in these countries, and the findings are discussed in light of the specific media system characteristics of democratic corporatist countries. Finally, some suggestions for future cross-national comparative research based on the proposed institutional framework are discussed.

Active or Passive Learning From Television? Political Information Opportunities and Knowledge Gaps During Election Campaigns

This article investigates how television, by providing various news and special election programs, influenced the development of knowledge gaps during the 2010 Swedish national election campaign. By contrasting two competing claims on the knowledge-leveling role of television in todays high-choice media environment, the article further analyzes mechanisms of active and passive learning from television. Analysis of panel survey data shows that television functioned as a knowledge-leveler by narrowing gaps in knowledge over the course of the campaign. Additionally, the findings provide evidence of passive forms of learning as the key explanation as to why television news and special election programs narrow gaps in knowledge. The results are discussed in light of ongoing media market changes as well as recent longitudinal and cross-national studies on political information environments.

Priming effects during the financial crisis: accessibility and applicability mechanisms behind government approval

This study investigates priming effects during the global financial crisis that erupted in September 2008. Using two longitudinal data sources on public opinion dynamics in Sweden between 2007 and 2010, we find no evidence of a basic priming hypothesis. Drawing upon the distinction between accessibility and applicability mechanisms, however, additional analysis indicates that priming of economic considerations was moderated by citizens’ attributions of responsibility for current economic developments. These results support the notion of priming as a two-step process, whereby heavy news coverage of the financial crisis increases the accessibility of economic considerations among the audience, but whether these considerations are used in government approval assessments depends on their perceived applicability as well.