(De)personalization of campaign communication: Individualization and hierarchization in party press releases and media coverage in the 2008 Austrian parliamentary election campaign
Resource type
Journal Article
Status
Published
Recommended form of citation (APA)
Lengauer, G., & Winder, G. (2013). (De)personalization of campaign communication: Individualization and hierarchization in party press releases and media coverage in the 2008 Austrian parliamentary election campaign. Communications - The European Journal of Communication Research, 38(1), 13-39. https://doi.org/10.1515/commun-2013-0002
Author(s)
Lengauer, Günther
External DOI
PHSG Organisation name
Project(s)
License Condition
All rights reserved
Proforis OA-status
metadata only (bibliographisch)
Topic PHSG
Digitale und Informatische Bildung
Fields of Science and Technology (OECD)
Social sciences
Abstract
To restructure and systematize the concept of personalization, in this study we introduce a two-dimensional and relational typology of (de)personalization of political representation, comprising a horizontal (individualization) as well as a vertical dimension (hierarchization), and put it to an empirical test. We concertedly utilize content analyses of political newspaper and television coverage as well as of party press releases during the 2008 Austrian election campaign. With regard to the Austrian case, the findings outline that personalization of political representation is not a universal phenomenon; it rather appears as a context- and logic-sensitive communicational phenomenon. Political public relations shows significantly higher levels of horizontal as well as vertical diversification than the media by being more individualized and less monopolized by leaders and executive elites. Additionally, political representation in the tabloid press is more personalized than in quality papers, and the communication of catch-all parties is more individualized than of niche parties.
PHSG Organisation name
Project(s)
Access Rights
metadata only (bibliographisch)
License Condition
All rights reserved
Rights Holder
Publisher