Political Information Opportunities in Europe

Abstract

This study examines the supply of political information programming across thirteen European broadcast systems over three decades. The cross-national and cross-temporal design traces the composition and development of political information environments with regard to the amount and placement of news and current affairs programs on the largest public and private television channels. It finds that the televisual information environments of Israel and Norway offer the most advantageous opportunity structure for informed citizenship because of their high levels of airtime and a diverse scheduling strategy. The study contributes to political communication research by establishing “political information environments” as a theoretically and empirically grounded concept that informs and supplements the comparison of “media systems.” If developed further, it could provide an information-rich, easy-to-measure macro-unit for future comparative research.

Television Channel Content Profiles and Differential Knowledge Growth: A Test of the Inadvertent Learning Hypothesis Using Panel Data

“…The political information supply on the two largest public service television channels, SVT1 and SVT2, is almost exactly average compared to other Western media systems. Moreover, similar to comparable countries such as Belgium, Great Britain, Israel, The Netherlands, and Norway, news scheduling on Swedish public and commercial television is clearly diversified, increasing the chances to capture inadvertent Downloaded by [University of California Santa Barbara] at 02:06 26 August 2015 audiences (see Esser et al, 2012; see also Oscarsson & Holmberg, 2008). In addition to the two widely watched public service channels, the Swedish broadcasting system also provides viewers access to several commercial channels with different content profiles (Hujanen, Weibull, & Harrie, 2013;Strömbäck & Nord, 2008).…”

“…The argument put forward in several cross-national comparative studies is that public service-oriented broadcasting systems provide more opportunities for less politically motivated citizens to acquire political knowledge than market-based systems (Aalberg, van Aelst, & Curran, 2010;Curran et al, 2009;Iyengar et al, 2010;Soroka et al, 2012). By offering a content profile with more news about politics and current affairs at several slots during primetime, citizens in public service systems are more likely to encounter political information as a by-product of watching television (Esser et al, 2012). Thus, "for citizens in these countries, the opportunity costs of exposure to hard news reports are significantly lowered" (Iyengar et al, 2010, p. 305).…”

“…Recent research, however, points at substantial differences across media systems. Cross-national comparative research suggests that the presence of popular public service broadcasting institutions increases the "inadvertent" audience for news and, thereby, the opportunities to learn among less politically interested citizen groups despite the abundance of choices Curran, Iyengar, Lund, & Salovaara-Moring, 2009;Esser et al, 2012;Iyengar et al, 2010). Unlike market-driven media systems such as those of the United States, most European broadcast markets are dualistic where strong public service broadcasting coexists with commercial competitors.…”

“…In some countries, public service requirements are also imposed on some commercial broadcasters. Previous research has documented that the presence of strong public service elements in a media system implies a scheduling of news and current affairs programming across the major broadcasters, spread over several slots during primetime (Esser et al, 2012;Soroka et al, 2012). The content profiles, and scheduling of news, have profound consequences as the chances for capturing inadvertent audiences are substantially greater.…”

Regulating the new information intermediaries as gatekeepers of information diversity

“…Thus, the authors conclude, the concentration of firms caused by the fixed costs spent on quality, combined with the public's relatively undifferentiated tastes, weakens the provision of external diversity by the market. For example comparative studies on the political information supply provided by television broadcasters conclude that increased market competition leads to less news and current affairs programming, in other words less quality programming overall (Esser, et al, 2012).…”