Center for Politics and Communication

Andreas Schuck at debate about direct democracy in the EU

CPC — Mon, 13 May 2013 21:00:07 +0000

On May 9th, the official ‘Europe Day 2013’, Andreas Schuck presented a study about why citizens across Europe approve or disapprove of EU referendums as a means of direct democracy at a conference organized by Theresa Reidy (University College Cork) and Jane Suiter (Dublin City University) and supported by the Irish Research Council in Dublin, Ireland. Findings show that especially citizens who are committed to democratic practices but are critical of traditional party politics and the way their government handles the EU integration issue support EU referendums. The same day he also participated in a roundtable discussion and public debate at the European Parliament Office in Dublin on the topic “European Year of the Citizens, an analysis of 40 years of direct democracy in the EU”.

Political Communication PhD seminar

CPC — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 06:51:04 +0000

Yesterday, the Political Communication PhD seminar took place at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS) in Wassenaar, where CPC-Researcher Claes de Vreese is currently a fellow. At the seminar, PhD Students Political Communication presented and discussed their research with an invited expert in the field: Dr. Rune Slothuus from Aarhus University, Claes de Vreese and Sophie Lecheler.

Research Priority Area Symposium: ‘Automatic processes in mediated message processing’ at ASCoR

CPC — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 22:16:01 +0000

Three excellent (inter)national researchers from the field of communication science will share their perspective on how automatic processes affect the way in which mediated messages are processed and how this affects people’s cognitions, evaluations, and behavior.

The lectures will be followed by elevator pitches of young ASCoR researchers from each subject area involved in communication research about automatic processes. With this set-up, we have created a very promising programme that is relevant to all areas of communication research and that is bound to lead to interesting discussions.

Programme
12.30 Lunch
13.20 Opening by Professor Claes de Vreese, scientific director of ASCoR
13.30 Keynote lecture by Professor Annie Lang from Indiana University
14.25 Lecture by Professor Enny Das from Radboud University
15.20 Coffee & tea break
15.50 Lecture by Dr. Marieke Fransen from the University of Amsterdam
16.30 Elevator pitches
17.15 Drinks

Date and location
The symposium will take place on Thursday, May 23rd 2013.
Location: Trippenhuis, Kloveniersburgwal 29, 1000 GC Amsterdam

Matthijs Elenbaas successfully defended his PhD dissertation

CPC — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:30:45 +0000

Matthijs Elenbaas successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation in the Auditorium of the University of Amsterdam on Tuesday, April 16. His Ph.D. degree was awarded cum laude. The dissertation is titled Dynamics of Political Information Transmission: How Media Coverage Informs Public Judgments about Politics, and was supervised by prof.dr. Claes de Vreese, and co-supervised by dr. Hajo Boomgaarden and dr. Andreas Schuck. Individual chapters of the dissertation have been published in European Journal of Political Research, Political Communication, and Communication Research. One chapter was awarded Top 3 Ph.D. Paper by the Political Communication division of the International Communication Association (ICA).

Andreas Schuck teaching at UTS Sydney

CPC — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 10:04:53 +0000

Andreas Schuck is currently visiting the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of Technology (UTS) in Sydney, Australia. He will be teaching a Post-graduate Media Studies research design workshop on how to design, conduct and analyse media effects experiments and teach several guest lectures in the Journalism Studies undergraduate and graduate programs at UTS on audience responses to news media content and the (de-)mobilizing role of emotions in political communication, the topic of his NWO VENI grant. His visit to UTS is supported by an Erasmus Mundus Teaching Scholarship. Both the Graduate School of Journalism at UTS and the Graduate School of Communication at the University of Amsterdam are partners in the international Erasmus Mundus MA program in ‘Journalism, Media & Globalisation’, for more informaton, see mundusjournalism.com.

Claes de Vreese in AAC debat

CPC — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 15:35:33 +0000

Wat is de rol van de media in onze democratie? Bepalen de media alles? Of hebben politici nog wat te zeggen? Wat is de invloed van de media op publieke opinie? Deze onderwerpen staan centraal in het debat op donderdag 7 maart. De sprekers zijn Claes de Vreese, die een overzicht zal geven van recente inzichten uit de (inter-)nationale literatuur in de relatie tussen journalisten en politici, in de berichtgeving in de politiek en de invloed op publieke opinie, en Hans Laroes die naar aanleiding van zijn nieuwe boek ‘De littekens van de dag’ zijn visie zal vertellen.

Aanmelden: link
Toegang: het debat is gratis.
Adres: Amsterdamse Academische Club, Oudezijds Achterburgwal 235, Amsterdam.
Wanneer: 7 maart (aanvang 17.30u)

Special issue Journal of Political Marketing

CPC — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:43:09 +0000

Yesterday, a special issue of the Journal of Political Marketing was published with many contributions from CPC-researches (see: link).

The special issue contains:

Andreas R. T. Schuck, Rens Vliegenthart, Hajo G. Boomgaarden, Matthijs Elenbaas, Rachid Azrout, Joost van Spanje & Claes H. de Vreese
“Explaining Campaign News Coverage: How Medium, Time, and Context Explain Variation in the Media Framing of the 2009 European Parliamentary Elections.”
Jesper Strömbäck, Ralph Negrine, David Nicolas Hopmann, Carlos Jalali, Rosa Berganza, Gilg U. H. Seeber, Andra Seceleanu, Jaromir Volek, Boguslawa Dobek-Ostrowska, Juri Mykkänen, Marinella Belluati & Michaela Maier:
“Sourcing the News: Comparing Source Use and Media Framing of the 2009 EuropeanParliamentary Elections”
Heiko Giebler & Bernhard Wessels:
“Campaign Foci in European Parliamentary Elections: Determinants and Consequences”
Silke Adam, Michaela Maier, Claes H. de Vreese, Andreas R. T. Schuck, Vaclav Stetka, Carlos Jalali, Gilg U. H. Seeber, Ralph Negrine, Lilia Raycheva, Rosa Berganza, Jolán Róka, Boguslawa Dobek-Ostrowska, Lars Nord, Matthias Balzer & Manuela Baumli:
“Campaigning Against Europe? The Role of Euroskeptic Fringe and Mainstream Parties in the 2009 European Parliament Election”
Joost Van Spanje, Hajo G. Boomgaarden, Matthijs Elenbaas, Rens Vliegenthart, Rachid Azrout, Andreas R. T. Schuck & Claes H. de Vreese:
“Getting the Message Across:Perceived Effectiveness of Political Campaign Communication”
Catherine de Vries & Marco Steenbergen:
“Variable Opinions: The Predictability of Support for Unification in European Mass Publics”

Tom Bakker defends his PhD dissertation

CPC — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 21:57:26 +0000

Tuesday, the 26th of February at 14.00, Tom Bakker will defend his PhD titled “Citizens as political participants. The myth of the active online audience?” The PhD thesis is supervised by prof. dr. K.J. Schönbach and prof. dr. C.H. de Vreese. The public defence will take place at De Agnietenkapel, Oudezijds Voorburgwal 229 – 231, Amsterdam.

For more information about the PhD thesis, see link.

Pieterjan Desmet successfully defended his PhD thesis

CPC — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 21:40:14 +0000

On 13 February 2013, Pieterjan Desmet defended his PhD thesis, entitled “Evaluating the EU. The influence of national institutional quality, media and interpersonal communication on EU democratic performance evaluations”. The project was supervised by prof. dr. Claes de Vreese and dr. mr. Joost van Spanje.

Below, you can find a brief summary of the PhD thesis (in Dutch):

Burgers evalueren de democratische kwaliteit van de EU met hun nationale kader als referentiepunt. Hoe beter de nationale instellingen, hoe kritischer de blik naar Europa. En hoe meer kennis men heeft over de nationale situatie, hoe meer deze een rol spelen in de evaluatie van het Europese niveau. Dit blijkt uit onderzoek van Pieterjan Desmet. Hij bekeek welk effect de kwaliteit van nationale instituties, de mediaberichtgeving en de toon van interpersoonlijke gesprekken heeft op de manier waarop de democratische kwaliteit van de EU wordt geëvalueerd. Desmet concludeert ook dat media en interpersoonlijke communicatie een grote rol spelen. De toon (en tooncongruentie met elkaar) van media en interpersoonlijke gesprekken is van invloed op de uiteindelijke evaluatie. Opmerkelijk is dat hoe meer men onenigheid percipieert in een persoonlijk gesprek, hoe minder effect dit gesprek heeft op de EU-evaluaties. Desmet toont met zijn onderzoek dat de EU een erg divers publiek heeft, en dit publiek ook gedifferentieerd benaderd moet worden. Daarnaast vindt hij dat de EU moet investeren in gerichte campagnes, via traditionele en sociale media, om de eigen boodschap goed overgebracht te krijgen. Tot slot zijn de burgers zelf nog steeds de beste ambassadeurs van de EU, en moeten deze dus effectiever worden overgehaald om deze rol op te nemen. Het onderzoek van Desmet is deel van ELECDEM, een Europees netwerk dat jonge onderzoekers uit verschillende Europese landen verenigt.

Linda Bos writes blogpost on extremisproject.org

CPC — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 13:52:31 +0000

On the website extremisproject.org, a global platform for evidence-based analysis of extremism and terrorism, Linda Bos wrote a blogpost with the title: “Do right-wing populist party leaders make a difference?”. Read and view the blog here (in English).