Work

Connotative Associations of Electoral Candidate Mentions in Swiss Newspapers

Year: 2024

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: To what extend the mass media cover election campaigns fairly or, on the contrary, whether they cover elections in biased way, is a perennial debate among researchers, experts, political parties and citizens. We study the coverage of election candidates in the German-Swiss media for the federal elections of 2015, 1019 and 2023. By fine-tuning a large language model and examining the generated data, we show that the coverage of political candidates varies systematically according to their gender, age and party affiliation. The variances relate to political issues that are typically associated with the corresponding characteristics of the candidates and are mainly found in more recent election years and with new candidates. In the 2015 elections and among incumbents, it is only party identification that explains some of the differences in the media coverage of electoral candidates.

Source: Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17953008

Authors: Wüest, Bruno, Bachmann, Yanick, Meier, Claude

Institution: Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Business Administration

Language: English

Topic: Media Studies and Communication

Subfield: Communication

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W7116065276

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