Priming, Issue Ownership, and Party Support: The Electoral Gains of an Issue-Friendly Media Agenda. (3rd April 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Thesen, Gunnar; Green-Pedersen, Christoffer; Mortensen, Peter B.
• Is Part Of: Political communication. Volume 34:Number 2(2017)
• Page Start: 282
• Page End: 301
• Publication Date: 2017-04-03
• Subjects: Issue ownership -- media priming -- party support; Communication -- Political aspects -- Periodicals; Communication in politics -- Periodicals; 306.205
• DOI: 10.1080/10584609.2016.1233920
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1058-4609

Abstract

Abstract : Issue ownership theory posits a positive relationship between electoral support and public attention to issues that a party "owns." We investigate this key prediction of the issue ownership theory in a dynamic analysis of 20 years of party support and media coverage across multiple parties and issues. The results provide support for the basic electoral implication of issue ownership theory, showing that increased media attention to owned issues increases support for the issue owners. Furthermore, the article demonstrates that the effect of the ownership mechanism materializes differently for opposition and government parties. Opposition parties benefit from media attention to owned issues without losing ground when news concentrates on issues owned by government parties, while government parties, always struggling with the electoral cost of ruling, lose votes when news about opposition-owned issues increases without gaining support when the media agenda is "issue-friendly."