EUROCORES_ECRP: Political Communication Culture in European Democracies - A Comparative Study of the linkage between Political Elites and the Media

The study investigates orientations of political elites and journalists towards political communication in 11 Western European democracies. We call these orientations the Political Communication Culture of a country. While political communication is to be understood as the process of interaction between political actors and journalists, we must note that this relationship takes place in country specific national contexts. Thus, we further assume that in each country there is a specific social and political milieu in which political elites and journalists interact. It is the aim of our study to detect these national milieus and systematically compare them across countries. When we assess Political Communication Cultures we must consider that they are influenced by institutional structures and the general culture, history and tradition of the countries under study. Thus, we assume cultural similarities within four groups of nations, and at the same time expect that they entail differences between the corresponding Political Communication Cultures. Hence, our study includes: first, the Scandinavian countries - Denmark, Sweden, Finland - second, Western European continental countries - the Netherlands, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland - third, Mediterranean countries - Italy and Spain - and fourth, the English speaking countries with the United Kingdom as the sole representative in our sample.