Mediatization and Political Leadership

Abstract

Mediatization of politics has been observed to occur in many different ways. In the research of mediatization, one central area focuses on political actors and the degree to which they are governed by media logic or political logic. In this area, the political leaders have a key role. In this study, we focus on the relationship between the media and political leaders. Our first aim is to consider how the Finnish press and the political leaders themselves perceive the role of the media in the work of the political leaders. The second aim is to study how they evaluate what has changed in political communication and why. The empirical data consist of two datasets: data from the newspapers and interview data. The data from the newspapers were collected from four of the most widely read newspapers in Finland over a period of six months. The interview data consist of interviews with leaders from each of eight political parties in Parliament. All the data were analyzed by qualitative content analysis. Most of the results indicate mediatization of politics in Finland, but there are also a few features which do not support the development unequivocally. The political leaders are dependent on the media, but they have not adapted to the media to the extent the journalists suppose.

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