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Future research can test the influence of several factors that may influence whether defensive motivated people seek to reinforce their priors by selecting
pro-attitudinal or balanced content. Fourth, our findings that both defensive and accuracy motivated participants chose balanced content, has theoretical
and methodological implications. It demonstrates that both accuracy and defensive motivated individuals could be engaging in similar selection patterns
of political information, but for very different reasons. Methodologically, our results strengthen the argument that future studies should include balanced
content in their designs, to reproduce how people choose information in the real world of media exposure. Finally, the findings of this study suggest that
both defensive and accuracy motivated citizens are valuable in a democratic system.
PP 003
Self-Referential Reporting in German News Coverage – How Media Refers to the Term Lügenpresse
N. Denner
1
, C. Peter
2
1
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Institut für Publizistik, Mainz, Germany
2
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft und Medienforschung, München, Germany
There is currently an on-going change in European politics. More andmore countries have to face right-wing populist and strongly conservative parties gain‑
ing in importance.This results in consequences for journalists and the news media in these countries. Hungary, which established a law for more restrictions
of the media, and Poland, whose government is allowed to appoint the heads of public TV and radio, are just two examples. In Germany, there is not yet any
right-wing populist party in the German parliament. However, there are changes in politics and society as well. More and more people not only lose faith in
politics, but become suspicious of the mainstream media. Since autumn 2014, the distrust and suspicion of the news media has reached a new dimension:
the group Pegida (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West) coined the term Lügenpresse (liar press) to illustrate their growing distrust
in news media. However, this is not only an issue in Germany: Pegida has support in other European countries, such as Great Britain and the Netherlands
(Heine, 2015). News media becomes part of its own coverage as soon as it refers to these developments. This study investigates self-referential reporting in
German newspapers and blogs in this context, focusing on medialization (D’Angelo & Esser, 2014; Drentwett, 2009) and the self-perception of journalists
(Drentwett, 2011). Since the term is not only relevant in political issues but also in media-related news (i.e. media critics), we address self-referential news
in both areas. Research questions include whether there was a rise in self-coverage after the term Lügenpresse has been selected as“non-word”of the year
(Janich, 2015), which type of articles the term is used in, and how journalists discuss the term. Furthermore, research interest focuses on how the term is
framed, which frames are dominant in the news media and if the frames change over time. In order to address this, we look at media frames in media cov‑
erage (Entman, 1993; Matthes, 2007). We conducted a content analysis of the top five German newspapers as well as eight leading blogs from October 1
st
2014 to October 31
st
2015 (N = 343). Using cluster analysis technique, we discovered six frames which describe how the term is referred to. The news media
reflects itself more in the context of the term Lügenpresse in commentaries than in news reports. After having been elected as the“non-word”of the year,
the level and amount of self-coverage does not change significantly. Even if the term is sometimes framed extensively, discussing causes and effects,
the results show that especially newspapers do not elaborate on the term enough. This leads to the news media not fulfilling one of their most important
functions (Drentwett, 2011), criticising and discussing public issues. Often, the term is either just stated without any further explanation or Lügenpresse is
used as a synonym for“the press”or“the media”. This equalisation might lead to a further establishment of an unreflected label for the news media.
PP 004
Explaining the Gender Bias in Media Coverage of Austrian National Election Campaigns, 2002–2013
G. Melischek
1
, J. Seethaler
1
1
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies, Wien, Austria
Under-representation of women in politics and society constitutes a serious democratic deficit, which undermines the legitimacy of the contemporary
democratic ideal. However, numerous studies have documented that female politicians appear much less frequently in the news media than men do.
Professional factors (such as political position and job experience) and particular news features proved to have an impact on the amount of coverage
female politicians receive. Studies also indicate that women politicians are associated with less substantial issues than men. These gender differences may
have considerable effects on how politicians are evaluated, particularly during election times. In her recent analysis of television newscasts, Vos (2015) has
pointed out that, in addition to these widely researched explanations of gender differences, communicative competences and political activities might also
contribute to or mitigate the gender bias in media coverage. With regard to public relations activities of political parties, a long term study on Austrian
campaign communication has shown that, at the turn of the millennium, the parties had managed to become the driving forces behind the overall agenda
dynamics, mainly by adapting to the rules and norms of journalism. In most recent times, however, a more competitive media system has led to a more
powerful role of the media, manifesting itself in a more selective approach to the coverage of political issues (Author 2 & Author 1, 2014), which again may
enhance not only the oft-cited struggle over the campaign agenda (Swanson & Mancini, 1996), but also a struggle of“interpretive dominance”(Stuckey &
Antczak, 1995). Considering, therefore, that“political communication is essentially relational, with the key communicators continually studying, interacting
with, and responding to each other” (Blumler, 1997, p. 398), the present study breaks new ground by including not only professional characteristics and
news features, but also parties’ communication activities within its examinations of the factors that determine the amount of media coverage of female
politicians during election campaigns. The research period spans the last four Austrian national elections campaigns (2002, 2006, 2008, 2013) during
six weeks before Election Day. A content analysis was conducted on news releases of all Austrian parliamentary parties as well as on media’s campaign
coverage. As the Austrian television market is characterized by the consequences of an exceptionally long-lasting monopoly power of the public service
broadcaster and, at the same time, the newspaper market is dominated by the tabloid Kronen-Zeitung, which claims a readership of more than 40%
of the population, the analysis is based on these two most widely distributed media outlets. The datasets are drawn from approximately 5,000 daily news
releases of all Austrian parliamentary parties as well as 2,600 news stories (referring to Austrian politics) of the main evening news program "Zeit im Bild"
of the ORF and the Kronen Zeitung. Besides several formal and style characteristics, all news releases and news stories were coded for their main topic and
up to four main actors.