Guest Speaker to Address the Role of Media in Political Elections

"Mediatization and Metacoverage: A Comparative Analysis of German, British, and U.S. General Election News"

Abstract: This talk discusses a recent study that uses a framing approach and comparative perspective to examine the relationship between "mediatization" and "metacoverage" in election news of three countries: the United States, Germany, and Great Britain. Metacoverage is operationally defined as campaign news about:

the behaviors and roles of the news media, who are political agents that participate in, and shape, political events and outcomes, and

the presence and roles of communications media in candidates' publicity efforts, including their advertising and public relations strategies, and activities of their media advisors and consultants.

The amount and types (frames) of metacoverage in news of the 2000 U.S. presidential election, the 2001 British general election, and the 2002 German general election were content analyzed after an assessment of mediatization of the electoral systems of each of those countries. There were three major findings:

more metacoverage was observed in the highly mediatized U.S. election system than in election communication systems with less mediatization (Germany and Great Britain);

there was a pattern among all three countries in which similar topics were covered in conjunction with press and publicity frames; and

more strategy frames were observed in U.S. news than in German and British news, but strategy framed metacoverage tended to follow a discursive pattern in all three countries.

These results are interpreted via the hybridization thesis, which states that "new" practices (i.e. metacoverage) in countries with lower levels of mediatization tend to follow patterns that exist in countries with high levels of mediatization.

The J-School and the Telecommunications Department are jointly sponsoring a presentation by Frank Esser, assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Esser will present "Mediatization and Metacoverage: A Comparative Analysis of German, British and U.S. General Election News," from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Friday (Oct. 8) in the Stateroom East of the Indiana Memorial Union.

This talk discusses a recent study that examined in depth media coverage in the 2000 U.S. presidential election, the 2001 British general election, and the 2002 German general election. Read Full Abstract. (Link to the abstract on the following page)

Esser's research focuses on mass communication from a cross-national perspective. His most recent book, Comparing Political Communication: Theories, Cases, and Challenges, was published by Cambridge University Press earlier this year. His articles have appeared in a variety of leading American and European journals. Esser has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Moscow and visiting professor at the University of Oklahoma. Currently, he is serving as International Affairs Coordinator of the German Communication Association (DGPuK).