Making Hay While the Sun Shines: Do Parties Only Respond to Media Attention When the Framing Is Right?

Abstract

When do parties take over the media’s issue attention in parliament? Scholarly work has shown that the mass media’s influence over the political agenda is conditional, yet only recently scholars started to consider the active role of parties and their strategic incentives in responding to the media. This article argues that parties only respond to media attention if the issue is framed in the party’s terms, as the right framing helps the party attain its policy goals. This argument is supported by pooled time-series analyses of the issue of European integration and the issue of immigration in Sweden and the Netherlands over the period 1995 to 2010. Altogether, the study contributes to our understanding of the strategic incentives and options parties have in responding to the media, as well as to our knowledge of the role of framing in political competition.