Citizens, Politicians and the Media: Evaluating Democratic Processes

The course literature consists mainly of articles from scientific journals and books. The full list can be found in the course guide, and the texts can be accessed by GU students via the library’s electronic resources, unless otherwise stated. In some cases, paper handouts are provided, or files uploaded by lecturers.

In addition there are two extra-curricular text books listed below (available from the book store and in the university library). These are to be considered as background reading, and not included in the literature for the examinations.

Extra-curricular books

• Dalton, Russell J. 2019, 7th edition. Citizen Politics. Public Opinion and Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies. Washington DC: CQ Press. 360 pages.
• Iyengar, Shanto. 2018, fourth edition (third edition is also okay). Media Politics. A Citizen Guide. WW. Norton & CO. 416 pages.

Articles (in order of appearance, not alphabetical)

• Hallin, Daniel & Mancini, Paolo (2004): Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge U P (chapters 1-4; 8-9). (Found as e-book via the library of the University of Gothenburg)
• Althaus, Scott. (2012). ”What’s Good and Bad in Political Communication Research? Normative Standards for Evaluating Media and Citizen Performance”. In Holli Semetko & Margaret Scammell (Eds.) The SAGE Handbook of Political Communication. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
• Berelson, Bernard (1952). "Democratic Theory and Public Opinion." Public Opinion Quarterly 16:313-330.
• Strömbäck, Jesper. (2005) “In Search of a Standard: four models of democracy and their normative implications for journalism”. Journalism Studies, Volume 6, Number 3, 2005, pp. 331-345
• Zaller, John (2003) “A new standard of news quality: Burglar alarms for the monitorial citizen”. Political Communication 20:2 109-130
• Chong, Dennis, & Druckman, James N. (2007). Framing Theory. Annual Review of Political Science, 10(1), 103-126.
• Jerit, Jennifer, Barabas, Jason, & Bolsen, Toby (2006). Citizens, knowledge, and the information environment. American Journal of Political Science, 50(2), 266-282.
• Lau, Richard R., & Redlawsk, David P. (2001). Advantages and disadvantages of cognitive heuristics in political decision making. American Journal of Political Science, 45(4), 951-971.
• Schlozmann, Kay L., & Brady, Henry E. (2022). Political Science and Political Participation, In Marco Giugni & Maria Grasso (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Political Participation (pp. 25-44). Oxford, Oxford University Press. (e-book)
• Theocharis, Yannis & van Deth, Jan W. (2018). The continuous expansion of citizen participation: a new taxonomy. European Political Science Review, 10(1), 139-163.
• Willeck, Claire & Mendelberg, Tali (2022). Education and Political Participation. Annual Review of Political Science, 25, 89-110. [only pages 89-94]
• Anderson, Christopher J. (2007) The end of economic voting? Contingency dilemmas and the limits of democratic accountability. Annual Review of Political Science, pp. 271-296,
• Bartels, Larry M. (2010). The Study of Electoral Behavior. In Leighley, Jan E., (Ed.). The Oxford Handbook of American Elections and Political Behavior. Oxford, Oxford University Press. (e-book)
• Evans, Geoffrey (2000). The continued significance of class voting. Annual Review of Political Science, 3(1), 401-417.
• Carnes, Nicholas and Noam Lupu. (2023). “The Economic Backgrounds of Politicians”. Annual Review of Political Science 26: 253-270.
• Dancygier, Rafaela, Lindgren, Karl-Oskar, Nyman, Pär and Vernby, Kåre (2021), Candidate Supply Is Not a Barrier to Immigrant Representation: A Case–Control Study. American Journal of Political Science, 65: 683-698. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12553
• Reynolds, Andrew. (2013). “Representation and Rights: The Impact of LGBT Legislators in Comparative Perspective.” American Political Science Review 107(2): 259–74. doi: 10.1017/S0003055413000051.
• Urbinati, Nadia and Mark E. Warren. (2008). “The Concept of Representation in Contemporary Democratic Theory”. Annual Review of Political Science 11: 387-412.
• Wängnerud, Lena (2009) Women in Parliaments: Descriptive and Substantive Representation. Annual Review of Political Science 12:51-59.
• Burstein, Paul. (2003). "The Impact of Public Opinion on Public Policy: A Review and an Agenda." Political Research Quarterly 56 29-40.
• Ezrow, Lawrence, Catherine De Vries, Marco Steenbergen, and Erica Edwards. 2010. “Mean voter representation and partisan constituency representation: Do parties respond to the mean voter position on to the supporters.” Party Politics 17(3): 275-301.
• Giger, Natalie and Klüver, Heike. (2016), Voting Against Your Constituents? How Lobbying Affects Representation. American Journal of Political Science, 60: 190-205. doi:10.1111/ajps.12183
• Persson, Mikael, and Anders Sundell. 2023. “The Rich Have a Slight Edge: Evidence from Comparative Data on Income-Based Inequality in Policy Congruence.” British Journal of Political Science: 1–12. doi: 10.1017/S0007123423000066.
• Walgrave, Stefaan et al. 2022. “Inaccurate Politicans: Elected Representatives’ Estimations of Public Opinion in Four Countries.” The Journal of Politics. 85(1): 209-222.
• Holmberg, Sören & Henrik Oscarsson (2016) Electoral Behavior. In Pierre (2016) (Ed) The Handbook of Swedish Politics. London: Oxford University press (e-book).
• Oscarsson, Henrik, & Rosema, Martin (2019). “Consideration set models of electoral choice: Theory, method, and application”, Electoral studies, 57, 256-262
• Oscarsson, Henrik & Strömbäck, Jesper (2019). “Political communication in the 2018 Swedish clection campaign. Statsvetenskaplig Tidskrift, vol. 121: 3, pp. 319-345.
• Karlsen, Rune., Enjolras, Bernard. (2016). Styles of Social Media Campaigning and Influence in a Hybrid Political Communication System: Linking Candidate Survey Data with Twitter Data. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 21(3), 338-357.
• Lees-Marshment, Jennifer (2001). The marriage of politics and marketing. Political Studies. Vol 49: 692-713.
• Lilleker, Darren G. and Negrine Ralph (2002). Professionalization: Of What? Since When? By Whom? The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics. 2002 (7): 98.
• Mykkänen, Juri, Nord, Lars & Moring, Tom (2021) Ten years after: Is the party-centered theory of campaign professionalization still valid? Party Politics 1-11.
• Ennser-Jedenastik, Laurenz, Dolezal, Martin, & Müller, Wolfgang C. (2017). Gender Differences in Negative Campaigning: The Impact of Party Environments. Politics & Gender, 13(1), 81-106.
• Lau, Richard R., Sigelman, Lee, & Rovner, Ivy Brown (2007). The effects of negative political campaigns: a metaanalytic reassessment. Journal of Politics, 69(4), 1176-1209.
• Valli, Chiara & Nai, Alessandro (2020) Attack politics from Albania to Zimbabwe: A large-scale comparative study on the drivers of negative campaigning. International Political Science Review 1-17.
• Walter, Annemarie. S. (2014). Negative campaigning in Western Europe: Similar or different?. Political Studies, 62(1_suppl), 42-60.
• Djerf-Pierre, M. & Shehata, A. (2017). Still an Agenda Setter: Traditional New Media and Public Opinion During the Transition From Low to High-Choice Media Environments. Journal of Communication, 67(5), 733-757.
• Scheufele, D. A., & Tewksbury, D. (2007). Framing, agenda setting, and priming: The evolution of three media effects models. Journal of Communication, 57(1), 9-20.
• Slater, M. D., Shehata, A., & Strömbäck, J. (2020). Reinforcing Spirals Model. In J. Bulck (Ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Media Psychology (pp. 1–11). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119011071.iemp0134
• Broda, E., & Strömbäck, J. (2024). Misinformation, disinformation, and fake news: lessons from an interdisciplinary, systematic literature review. Annals of the International Communication Association, 48(2), 139–166. [only pp: 139-144] https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2024.2323736
• Castro, L., Strömbäck, J., Esser, F. … Theocharis, Y. (2022). Navigating High-Choice European Political Information Environments: A Comparative Analysis of News User Profiles and Political Knowledge. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 27(4), 827–859. https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612211012572 
• Damstra, A., Vliegenthart, R., Boomgaarden, H., Glüer, K., Lindgren, E., Strömbäck, J., & Tsfati, Y. (2023). Knowledge and the News: An Investigation of the Relation Between News Use, News Avoidance, and the Presence of (Mis)beliefs. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 28(1), 29–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612211031457
• Hameleers, M. (2022). Separating truth from lies: Comparing the effects of news media literacy interventions and fact-checkers in response to political misinformation in the US and Netherlands. Information, communication & society, 25(1), 110-126.
• Skovsgaard, M., & Andersen, K. (2020). Conceptualizing News Avoidance: Towards a Shared Understanding of Different Causes and Potential Solutions. Journalism Studies, 21(4), 459–476. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2019.1686410
• Bastien, Frédérick. (2018). Using parallel content analysis to measure mediatization of politics: The televised leaders’ debates in Canada, 1968–2008. Journalism: 1-19.
• Hjarvard, Stig (2008). The Mediatization of Society. Nordicom Review 29(2):105-129.
• Ketelaars, Pauline & Van Aelst, Peter (2021) An actor approach to mediatization. Politics of the Low Countries 3:1.
• Mazzoleni, Gianpietro & Winfried Schultz (1999) "Mediatization" of Politics: A Challenge for Democracy? Political Communication, 16:3, 247-261.
• Strömbäck, Jesper (2008). Four Phases of Mediatization. An Analysis of the Mediatization of Politics. International Journal of Press/Politics, vol. 13(3), pp. 228-246.