Christiane Grill

Clarifying and Expanding the Use of Confirmatory Factor Analysis in Journalism and Mass Communication Research

Journalism and mass communication research is underutilizing structural equation modeling (SEM) for the purposes of specifying, estimating, and evaluating measurement models. The analytical exercises undertaken for this essay reveal SEM-based confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to be a multifaceted tool that can aid researchers in generating greater understanding of the measurement elements of their research endeavors. Secondary analyses of 2014 World Values Survey (N = 9,901) data emphasize the following: testing competing models, model identification, proper evaluation of covaried error terms, absolute and incremental model fit statistics, the chi-square distributed test statistic, model equivalency, multiple-group models, and assessing equality constraints.

How Anti-European, Populist Parties Campaigned in the 2014 EP Election

Over the years the 2014 European Parliamentary Elections has been facing a plethora of challenges. Amongst others, anti-European, populist parties across the EU have been gaining respectable amounts of vote shares. This study sheds light on how anti-European populist parties used classic campaign tools as well as Facebook and Twitter in their 2014 EP election campaigns. Moreover, this work addresses the role these social networking platforms have as strategic communication tools for these parties. To this end, posters, TV spots as well as Facebook and Twitter posts issued by anti-European, populist parties during the six weeks of the 2014 EP election campaign were analyzed. The campaign material originates from five populist parties; namely: FPO in Austria, FN in France, Jobbik in Hungary, SD in Sweden and UKIP in the United Kingdom.

How citizens (could) turn into an informed public: Explaining citizens’ attentiveness for European parliamentary elections

Abstract Being attentive to European Parliamentary (EP) elections is a decisive prerequisite in becoming more knowledgeable about EU affairs as well as eventually participating in EU politics. Even though attentiveness to politics is a common way of acquiring political information en passant, empirical studies in this realm are scarce. By systematically integrating content analysis data (N = 6432 news stories) with a three-wave panel survey (N = 1497), this study examines the explanatory factors for citizens’ attentiveness to the 2014 EP election. OLS regression models demonstrate that turnout intention and political activity predict citizens’ attentiveness to the election. Media consumption of EU news marginally drives attention to the election.

Populist politics and the ‘radical right’ in 2014 elections

The European Parliament elections in 2014 ended in momentous gains throughout the continent for several groupings that have explicitly questioned the form, and even the very existence, of the European Union (EU) itself. This growth in discontentment presents a potentially formidable challenge to the integrationist agenda that has hitherto largely prevailed in Brussels. The orthodoxy that states could achieve so much more by working closely together is now under threat. So it is perhaps somewhat paradoxical that what are often labelled ‘Eurosceptics’, or self-identify as ‘Eurorealists’, have exploited the European Parliament as a major campaigning platform from which to express themselves. Moreover, these parties have achieved representation and thereby gained practical resources that have in turn helped them further mobilize support within their respective member states. Perhaps one of the few comforts for adherents to what was once the seemingly hegemonic Europhile consensus that still dominates the Council of Ministers and European Commission is that the various sceptical forces ranged against them are ideologically divided and agree on little save their desire to hasten the end of the euro, the EU or both. This chapter considers messages produced and disseminated by the various sceptical parties during the 2014 elections, specifically through examination of their own political advertisements. The primary focus is on parties that have been labelled as ‘radical right’. The rise to prominence and 2014 campaigns by leading members of these tendencies will be discussed, with a focus on the Freedom Party of Austria, the UK Independence Party and the Hungarian nationalist Jobbik.

A network perspective on mediated Europeanized public spheres: Assessing the degree of Europeanized media coverage in light of the 2014 European Parliament election:

The European Union has become an active political player in the political realm, raising the question about the European Union’s linkages with all aspects of political life reflected in national Europeanized public spheres. This study offers empirical evidence on the extent to which mass media support, challenge or even ignore political representatives in European Union affairs, and thus legitimize, respectively delegitimize European Union governance. The analysis is based on large-scale content analyses of print, TV and online news gathered before and after the 2014 European Parliament election in Austria (N = 6432). Semantic networks show that national media focus on the European Union’s legislative body, the implications of the European Union’s exclusive competences on the nation state and on well-established European Union member countries. In doing so, national Europeanized public spheres constituted by the media legitimize the European Union’s governance in these areas while other aspects of European integration are ignored.

Politische Online-Pluriversen: Aggregatanalyse der Twitter-Kommunikation zur Salzburger Landtagswahl 2013

Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Grimm, Jürgen ; Grill, Christiane: Politische Online-Pluriversen: Aggregatanalyse der Twitter-Kommunikation zur Salzburger Landtagswahl 2013. In: Maireder, Axel (Ed.) ; Ausserhofer, Julian (Ed.) ; Schumann, Christina (Ed.) ; Taddicken, Monika(Ed.): Digitale Methoden in der Kommunikationswissenschaft. Berlin, 2015 (Digital Communication Research 2). ISBN 978-3-945681-02-2, 163-195.. https://doi.org/10.17174/dcr.v2.8