Articles

Van de krant naar de Kamer en terug ? : Een studie naar media-aandacht als inspiratie voor en resultaat van het Nederlandse vragenuur

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Abstract

This study on the role of media attention for the Dutch question hour answers these questions: to what extent is media attention a source of inspiration for o ral parliamentary questions? What explains the newsworthiness of these questions? And what explains the extent of media coverage for the questions posed during the question hour? To address this, we present a content ana lysis of oral parliamentary questions and related press coverage in five recent years. Results show first that oral questions are usually based o n media attention for a topic. Concerns about media influence should however be nuanced : it is not necessarily the coverage itself, but also regularly a politica! statement that is the actual source of a parliamentary question. The media are thus an important 'channel' for the interaction between politicians. Second, our analysis shows that oral questions do not receive media attention naturally. Several news va lues help to explain the amount of news coverage that questions receive. 'Surfing the wave' of news attention fora topic in the days previous to the question hour seems to be the best way to generate media attention.

How to Cite:

Van Aelst, P., van Santen, R., Melenhorst, L. & Helfer, L., (2015) “Van de krant naar de Kamer en terug ? : Een studie naar media-aandacht als inspiratie voor en resultaat van het Nederlandse vragenuur”, Res Publica 57(4), 433-455.