Alle reden davon - doch ist was dran? Medieneinflüsse auf Wahlentscheidungen im internationalen Vergleich

Although it can be inferred from the behavior of parties and candidates that these political actors attribute the mass media a substantial potential for direct influences on citizens' political decisions, few studies have so far been able to demonstrate that such a potential for influence really exists. Based on representative national surveys of voters in West and East Germany (1990), Spain (1993), and the United States (1992), the present study shows that this is partly due to the fact that the possibility of mutual cancellation of contradictory persuasive messages from different media has not not been sufficiently taken into account. When analysing various media (newspaper titles and television channels) separately it becomes obvious that in all four contexts individual voting decisions have been at least partly influenced by media reporting.The results suggest that both television programs and the press are able to influence voting decisions, even if they emphasize entertainment and not political information. Political predispositions like individual voters' partisanship, cultural loyalties, and group identifications reinforce or impede such media influences through the double filter of selective exposure and selective acceptance of persuasive messages originating from the media. Mostly, but by no means exclusively, media influences are strongest when they are in line with existing political predispositions, and weakest when they are in conflict to them.