Onderzoeksartikel

Media en het politieke kringloopmodel

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Abstract

This article examines the relative strength of the (reciprocal) influence relationships between the media agenda, the party agenda and the public agenda. Three divergent theories with respect to these relationships may be distinguished. The public choice theory, or economic theory of representative democracy entails bottom-up agenda setting: in order to survive politicians will follow the public agenda. The theory of top-down agenda setting entails that politicians will be able to influence the public through the mass media. Mediacracy theory predicts that both the public and their political representatives will follow the media agenda. Structural equation models (lisrel) have been applied to perform a secondary analysis of data with respect to the media agenda, the public agenda and the party agenda from The Netherlands for the period 1980-1986. The results indicate the plausibility of the top down model. In addition, a direct influence from the public on parties has been established, showing a partial confirmation of the bottom up model also. The mediacracy model is not confirmed.

How to Cite:

Kleinnijenhuis, J. & Rietberg, E., (1994) “Media en het politieke kringloopmodel”, Massacommunicatie : Wetenschappelijk Kwartaaltijdschrift voor Communicatie en Informatie 22(2), 74–95.