Does Mediatization Change MP-Media Interaction and MP Attitudes toward the Media? Evidence from a Longitudinal Study of Danish MPs

Abstract

Mass media have become more important in political communication in western democracies in recent decades. Parliamentarians need to pay attention to the norms and demands of the media and conform to the ‘media logic’. Politicians allegedly lose communicative autonomy in their interaction with the media and the literature suggests that they regret this development. The consequences of this mediatization process are rarely studied empirically, however. Using two elite surveys this article studies Danish MPs’ interaction with and attitudes toward the media in 1980 and 2000. As expected, the evidence shows that MPs appear more often in the media in 2000 than in 1980, and that they have come to perceive the media as a more autonomous political actor. Contrary to expectations, MPs have not become more critical toward the media in general and they have become even more satisfied with the media coverage of their own activities as MPs. On the individual level, the increased satisfaction is correlated with media appearances which again correlate with seniority, position, and party affiliation. The evidence suggests that parliamentarians are not puppets of the media-at least some of them are in a position to take advantage of the mediatization of politics.