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Knowing more from less: how the information environment increases knowledge of party positions
[journal article]
Abstract Access to information is a hallmark of democracy, and democracy demands an informed citizenry. Knowledge of party positions is necessary for voters so that electoral choices reflect preferences, allowing voters to hold elected officials accountable for policy performance. Whereas most vote choice mo... view more
Access to information is a hallmark of democracy, and democracy demands an informed citizenry. Knowledge of party positions is necessary for voters so that electoral choices reflect preferences, allowing voters to hold elected officials accountable for policy performance. Whereas most vote choice models assume that parties perfectly transmit positions, citizens in fact obtain political information via the news media, and this news coverage can be biased in terms of salience – which leads to asymmetric information. This study examines how information asymmetries in news coverage of parties influence knowledge about political party positions. It finds that the availability of information in the news media about a party increases knowledge about its position, and that party information in non-quality news reduces the knowledge gap more than information in quality news.... view less
Keywords
party; party politics; political influence; information; supply; news; media; political interest
Classification
Media Contents, Content Analysis
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture
Document language
English
Publication Year
2017
Page/Pages
p. 571-588
Journal
British Journal of Political Science, 47 (2017) 3
Handle
https://hdl.handle.net/10419/168571
ISSN
1469-2112
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed
Licence
Deposit Licence - No Redistribution, No Modifications
With the permission of the rights owner, this publication is under open access due to a (DFG-/German Research Foundation-funded) national or Alliance license.