The Effects of Media and their Logic on Legitimacy Sources within Local Governance Networks: A Three-Case Comparative Study

__Abstract__ Although theoretical and empirical work on the democratic legitimacy of governance networks is growing, little attention has been paid to the impact of mediatisation on democracies. Media have their own logic of news-making led by the media’s rules, aims, production routines and constraints, which affect political decision-making processes. In this article, we specifically study how media and their logic affect three democratic legitimacy sources of political decision-making within governance networks: voice, due deliberation and accountability. We conducted a comparative case study of three local governance networks using a mixed method design, combining extensive qualitative case studies, interviews and a quantitative content analysis of media reports. In all three cases, media logic increased voice possibilities for citizen groups. Furthermore, it broadened the deliberation process, although this did not improve the quality of this process per se, because the media focus on drama and negativity. Finally, media logic often pushed political authorities into a reactive communication style as they had to fight against negative images in the media. Proactive communication about projects, such as public relation (PR) strategies and branding, is difficult in such a media landscape

Studying young recipients of alcohol marketing : Two research paradigms and their possible consolidation

Peer reviewe

The role of the media in electoral behaviour: A Canadian perspective

This work, divided in four sections, is a critical assessment of Canadian perspectives on the role of the media in electoral behaviour, notably on the roles media play in setting or responding to the agenda in the heat of election campaigns. The first section of the article highlights important Canadian methodological and empirical contributions to behaviouralism. The second section of the article, on culture, ideology, and discourse, illustrates general patterns of contrast between the Canadian and American political cultures through an exploration of the comparative role of negative and attack advertisements in election campaigns. The third section of the article illustrates how facets of the Political Economy of Canada exert an impact on media/campaign interactions. The fourth and final section of the article undertakes the task of situating media/campaign interactions within the legal-institutional regulatory context of the Canadian state. Here, while the potential impact on media content is apparent, the critical approach to the role of the media incorporates both the unacknowledged conditions and the unanticipated outcomes of the regulatory apparatus