Media Effects on Politicians: An Individual-Level Political Agenda-Setting Experiment

Media attention is a crucial factor determining what issues make it onto the political agenda. However, studies have also shown that this political agenda-setting effect is not automatic. The present study conceptualizes the media's influence on politics as a function of the media message and the background of politicians and focuses on the moment a member of parliament (MP) learns about an issue through a news report. What aspects of a news report make politicians take action? And are some politicians more likely to take action than others? It introduces an innovative factorial survey experiment to isolate media effects by asking Swiss politicians (N = 50) to evaluate fictional news reports. Analyses show that news reports on an issue their party owns covering a negative development published in a quality newspaper are more likely to lead to action. However, negative news mainly affects junior MPs. In contrast to previous studies, issue specialization of the MP does not have a significant effect. Findings are discussed in light of the role of the political system and the power of the media in politics.