The article investigates why journalists choose to use experts as sources in their news coverage and the nature of the interaction of experts and journalists. During a month-long period in 2003, both journalists and experts were contacted on the day a news article appearing in one of the three largest national Danish newspapers referred to experts. In the vast majority of the cases, the contact comes as the result of initiatives taken by the journalists (approximately 90% of the cases), not the other way around (1 — 2% of the cases). Relatively active interaction proceeds between experts and journalists, whereby the expert generally provides background knowledge and serves as a sparring partner for the journalist in the attempts of the latter to interpret a given event or course of events on the public agenda.
Albæk E. and Nørgaard AS ( 2007) Med eller uden kasket [With or without a hat]. Weekendavisen, 3 May.
2.
Albæk E., Christiansen PM and Togeby L. ( 2001) Eksperter i medierne: Dagspressen brug af forskere 1961-2001 [Experts in the Media: Reference to Experts in the Daily News 1961-2001]. Århus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag.
3.
Albæk E., Christiansen PM and Togeby L. ( 2003) Experts in the mass media: Researchers as sources in Danish daily newspapers, 1961-2001. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly80(4): 937-48.
4.
Albæk E., Christiansen PM and Togeby L. ( 2007) Europeanization of expert reference in the media? In: Holzhacker R and Albæk E (eds) Democratic Governance and European Integration. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 44-52.
5.
Albæk E, Elmelund-Præstekær C, Hopmann D and Klemmensen R. (2011) Experts in election news coverage: Process or substance?Forthcoming in Nordicom Review.
6.
Blumler JG ( 1997) Origins of the crisis of communication for citizenship . Political Communication14(4): 395-404.
7.
Blumler JG and Gurevitch M. ( 1995) The Crisis of Public Communication. London: Routledge.
8.
Brants K. and Van Praag P. ( 2006) Signs of media logic: Half a century of political communication in the Netherlands. Javnost - The Public13: 25-40.
9.
Capella JN and Jamison KH ( 1997) Spiral of Cynicism: The Press and the Public Good. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
10.
Cook TE ( 1998) Governing with the News. Chicago, IL : University of Chicago Press.
11.
Epstein EJ ( 1973) News from Nowhere. New York: Vintage Books.
12.
Esser F., Reinemann C. and Fan D. ( 2001) Spin doctors in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany. Press/Politics6(1): 16-45.
13.
Esser F. and D’Angelo P. ( 2006) Framing the press and publicity process in U.S., British, and German general election campaigns - A comparative study of metacoverage . Press/Politics11(3): 44-66.
14.
Giddens A. ( 1990) The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
15.
Goddard P., Scammel M. and Semetko H. ( 1998) Too much of a good thing? Television in the 1997 election campaign. In: Crewe I, Gosschalk B and Bartle J (eds) Political Communications: Why Labour Won the General Election of 1997. London: Frank Cass, 149-75.
16.
Gulati GJ, Just MR and Crigler AN ( 2004) News coverage of political campaigns. In: Kaid LL (ed.) Handbook of Political Communication Research. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum , 237-56.
17.
Kristensen NN ( 2004) Journalister og kilder - slinger i valsen? [Journalists and Sources - With a Hitch?]Århus: Forlaget Ajour.
18.
Listhaug O. and Wiberg M. ( 1995) Confidence in political and private institutions. In: Klingemann HD and Fuchs D (eds) Citizens and the State. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 298-322.
19.
Lomborg B. ( 2001) The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
20.
Meilby M. ( 1996) Journalistikkens grundtrin [The Basic Steps of Journalism]. ÅrhusForlaget Ajour.
21.
Patterson TE ( 2000) The United States: News in a free-market society. In: Gunther R and Mughan A (eds) Democracy and the Media. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 241-65.
22.
Pedersen OK and Holst M. ( 2000) Den selvstændige journalistik [Autonomous journalism] . In: Pedersen OK, Kjær P, Esmark A, Holst M and Carlsen EM (eds) Politisk journalistic [Political Journalism]. ÅrhusForlaget Ajour, 145-68.
23.
Robinson MJ and Sheehan M. ( 1983) Over the Wire and on TV. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
24.
Semetko HA, Blumler JG, Gurevitch M. and Weaver DH ( 1991) The Formation of Campaign Agendas: A Comparative Analysis of Party and Media Role in Recent American and British Elections. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
25.
Steele J. ( 1990) Sound bite seeks expert. Washington Journalism Review (September): 28-9.
26.
Strömbäck J. ( 2008) Four phases of mediatization: An analysis of the mediatizaation of politics. International Journal of Press/Politics13: 228-46.
27.
Weber M. ( 1971) Makt og byråkrati [Power and Bureaucracy]. Oslo: Gyldendal.
28.
Weiler HN ( 1983) Legalization, expertise, and participation: Strategies of compensatory legitimation in educational policy. Comparative Education Review27: 259-77.
29.
Wien C. ( 2001) Journalisters brug af ekspertkilder i danske aviser [The reference to expert sources in Danish newspapers]. Paper presented at Nordmediakonferens, Reykjavik, 11-13 August. Available at: http://www.nordicom.gu.se/mr/iceland/papers/nine/CWien.doc
30.
Wilke J. and Reinemann C. ( 2001) Do the candidates matter? Long-term trends of campaign coverage - A study of the German press since 1949. European Journal of Communication16: 291-314.
