Public Policy and the Mass Media: The Interplay of Mass Communication and Political Decision Making

The mass media are playing an increasingly central role in modern political life that expands beyond their traditional function as mediators between the world of politics and the citizens.

This volume explores the extent and circumstances under which the media affects public policy; whether the political impact of the media is confined to the public representation of politics or whether their influence goes further to also affect the substance of political decisions. It provides an in-depth understanding of the conditions under which the media might, or might not, play a role in the policy process and what the nature of their influence is.

Bringing together conceptual and methodological approaches from both political science and communications studies, this book presents an interdisciplinary perspective. It presents empirical evidence of the processes involved in the interaction between mass communication and policy and features case studies from Western Europe and the US and across different policy fields.

The book will be of interest to students of public policy, political communication and comparative politics.

Sigrid Koch-Baumgarten is Professor of Political Science at the Department of Political Science, Philipps University Marburg, Germany. Her research focuses on German and international industrial relations and its actors; new forms of governance in the national and international arena; and the role of the media in ‘media democracy’. Katrin Voltmer is Senior Lecturer of Political Communication at the Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds, UK. Her research interests include media influences on public opinion and the policy process, the relationship between journalists and their news sources, and the role of the media in democratic transitions. She is the editor of The Mass Media and Political Communication in New Democracies (also published by Routledge).