Viewpoint Diversity, Balance, Deliberativeness: Assessing the Media Performance of Migration Coverage Multi-Dimensionally Based on Deliberative Democratic Theories

Abstract

The issue of migration is highly salient in public debates in many countries. Given this salience and the risk of political instrumentalization, often by actors from the far right, it is important for citizens to receive high-quality, differentiated information on the migration issue. This touches upon the question of media performance. While there is abundant research on the media portrayal of the migration issue, this research strand is, surprisingly, hardly linked to research on media performance. We establish this link and present an innovative, sophisticated framework for standardized content analyses on migration. It combines three standards of media performance that are key to deliberative democratic theories—viewpoint diversity, balance, and deliberativeness—and utilizes value frames and the sociological concept of idea elements to measure viewpoint diversity and balance. A first empirical test of our newly developed approach, taking Germany as a case, shows noticeable differences in the media performance of 11 outlets analyzed. This test proves the applicability of our framework, which provides a valuable starting point for future comparative research on the media performance of migration coverage across countries and over time.

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