Helle Mølgaard Svensson

Ebbs and flows of negative campaigning: A longitudinal study of the influence of contextual factors on Danish campaign rhetoric

This article investigates the level of negative campaigning in Danish national election campaigns from 1971 and onwards. The ambition of the article is two-fold. First, it empirically debugs the widespread myth that campaign rhetoric is becoming more and more negative over the years. Second, it theoretically advances the understanding of the determinants of negative campaigning by studying a range of contextual factors that affect the general level of negativity of campaigns. It is thus shown that campaigns get more negative as the number of running parties increases, as the ideological span in the party system widens, and as the degree of political conflict at the time of the election grows.

Are watchdogs doing their business? Media coverage of economic news

In the wake of the financial crisis, journalists were criticized for failing in their coverage of the economy: The claim was that they had failed in their duty as watchdogs. The aim of this article is to examine to what extent journalists fulfill their role as watchdogs when covering business news, in light of this criticism. Given the prevalence of the watchdog ideal in journalism and the lessons learned during the financial crisis, we expect journalists to act equally critically toward business and political news. Based on a systematic content analysis of business and political news in the five largest Danish newspapers, we find that politicians and business actors are covered with a similar tone. We conclude that journalists do fulfill their watchdog role when it comes to both business and politics. The differences in coverage and the implications of this adherence to the watchdog ideal are also discussed.

The impact of ambiguous economic news on uncertainty and consumer confidence

Journalistic practice emphasizes both positive and negative aspects of news stories. Nevertheless, the effects of ambiguous news, which includes both positive and negative information, are under-investigated. This study examines how exposure to ambiguous economic news affects uncertainty and ‘consumer confidence’. Consumer confidence refers to citizens’ evaluations of their personal economic situation and of the national economy and is an antecedent of economic behaviour. Using a two-wave national panel survey and a media content analysis, the study demonstrates that ambiguous news exposure and individual level changes in consumer confidence are linked. Our analysis suggests that the relation between exposure to ambiguous news and changes in consumer confidence is mediated by economic uncertainty. This article bridges insights from research on consumer confidence, economic psychology and media effects and unravels one of the mechanisms at play in this cross-field.