Political agenda-setting and -building in small consensus democracies: Relationships between media and parliament in the Netherlands and Switzerland

This paper analyzes the mutual influence between media and political agendas in the Netherlands and Switzerland. While these two countries share a number of similarities, they also exhibit some important differences (e.g. the frequency of parliamentary meetings) that are likely to affect the patterns of influence. Time-series cross-section analyses of monthly data about issue attention in parliamentary questions and in media coverage for the period 1995–2003 (Switzerland) and 1995–2011 (Netherlands) provide partial support for our hypotheses. Agenda-setting and -building effects are overall st... Mehr ...