Contexts of the Media-Politics Relationship: Country Selection and Grouping

The comparative study of political communication culture rests on the assumption that national milieus of the media-politics relationship are in one way or another related to the structure of media and political systems. In our comparative study we do not expect possible differences in the attitudinal patterns across countries to occur because the actors are, for example, Danish, Spanish or German nationals. More specifically, individuals have been socialized by their historically conditioned political and media institutions and therefore act and interact under different systemic constraints. Therefore, national contexts consisting of media and political system features are related to the orientations of actors of political communication. Moreover, we can also assume that the broader political culture of a country—that is, the way people relate to politics and democracy—influences the conduct of public communication and therefore may constrain political communication culture. For instance, less support for political institutions may strengthen the polarization of mediated political communication because of sharper political conflicts and ideological confrontation.