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Communicating policy through news: mediatizing the manifesto?

APSA Political Communication Pre-Conference, Wednesday 28th August 2013, University of Illinois at Chicago

Nick Anstead

[email] n.m.anstead@lse.ac.uk [twitter] @nickanstead

The Liberal Democrats on Higher Education


He [Nick Clegg] was very clear about the package of four issues as he went into the election. Now that wasnt made up on the hoof, that was four issues that everyone in the party knew and completely understood would be the basis for any kind of discussions, and they are on the front cover of the manifesto (Olly Grender, former Liberal Democrat Head of Communications, May 7th 2010, BBC Today Programme).

The study of party manifestos


Huge content-driven efforts to codify manifesto content, notably The Comparative Manifesto project which has coded more than 3500 documents published by 900 parties in 55 countries (Volkens et al., 2013). These data have been used to address two broad research questions:
Quantifying political parties positions on a left-right spectrum (for example Laver & Garry, 2000; Adams & Somer-Topcu, 2009; Dinas & Gemenis, 2009) Assessing the effectiveness of governments at achieving their policy platforms after a successful election (Mansergh and Thomson, 2007; Royed, 1996; Royed and Borelli, 1999).

Kavanagh (1981) gives manifestos an important institutional role.

Research questions
How does the content of the Liberal Democrat manifesto relate to the way that the party tried to present itself in the media? How does it relate to the way they were actually presented in the media? Normatively, what ramifications does this have for the traditional idea of the party platform?

Method
Dataset:
Liberal Democrat manifesto text ; Liberal Democrat press releases; Nick Clegg press releases; and newspaper stories relating to Liberal Democrat policy, all for election campaign period.

Method:
Dictionary-based computer aided content analysis using Wordstat package (see final slides for additional details).

Appearance of dictionary terms

Relative appearance of dictionary terms


Man POLICY\ECONOMY POLICY\FOREIGN POLICY POLICY\HEALTH POLICY\HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY\IMMIGRATION POLICY\OTHER EDUCATION POLICY\SOCIAL WELFARE 0.67 0.08 0.06 0.02 0.02 0.12 0.03 NCPR difference 0.03 0.07 0.12 0.02 0.01 0.04 0.00 LDPR difference 0.14 0.06 0.01 0.02 0.00 0.09 0.01 NP Difference 0.02 0.01 0.04 0.01 0.08 0.07 0.01

Relative appearance of dictionary terms


Man POLICY\ECONOMY POLICY\FOREIGN POLICY POLICY\HEALTH POLICY\HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY\IMMIGRATION POLICY\OTHER EDUCATION POLICY\SOCIAL WELFARE 0.67 0.08 0.06 0.02 0.02 0.12 0.03 NCPR difference 0.03 0.07 0.12 0.02 0.01 0.04 0.00 LDPR difference 0.14 0.06 0.01 0.02 0.00 0.09 0.01 NP Difference 0.02 0.01 0.04 0.01 0.08 0.07 0.01

Preliminary findings

Preliminary findings

Type of commitment made

Preliminary findings

Ramifications for classic questions


One defence the Liberal Democrats have is that entering coalition government meant they had to negotiate but priorities remain important. However, Nick Cleggs communication during the election campaign was substantially different from his partys manifesto:
Judged on the appearance of dictionary terms, he spoke about higher education twice as much as the manifesto.

News coverage of the Liberal Democrats greatly overemphasised immigration, relative to manifesto content although this may be driven by a couple of publications (notably The Mail and Express).

Ramifications for classic questions


What role does news coverage play in this process? While Cleggs talking points were not the same as the manifesto, the newspapers also had a distinct agenda, focusing heavily on immigration (although we can infer that certain outlets may be heavily responsible for this). As such the idea of the mediatized manifesto is inherently contested between parties, and supportive and oppositional media.

Conclusions
Perhaps this goes someway towards explaining the anger directed at Clegg, and the failure of the manifesto-based defence employed by the Liberal Democrats More broadly, this difference in content between the manifesto and political communications challenges the institutional role of the manifesto in parliamentary democracies. This is especially true in plurality systems where formerly two-party systems are fragmenting and hung parliaments are increasingly likely.

Further work
In terms of this paper, data tidying is important and continuing to improve the dictionary. More data? Social media feeds? What would this show? Future research project? apply the concept of mediatized manifesto to classic questions of manifesto studies i.e. spatial arrangement of parties and legislative success.

Methodological appendix policy dictionary


ECONOMICS ASSETS; BAILED_OUT; BANKING; BANKS; BUSINESS; BUSINESSES; CAPITAL; CASH; COMPANIES; COMPANY; CORPORATION; CORPORATIONS; EARNINGS; ECONOMIES; ECONOMY; EMPLOYED; EMPLOYING; EMPLOYMENT; ENTERPRISE; ENTERPRISES; EQUITY; FINANCIAL; FISCAL; INCOME; INCOMES; INVEST*; INVESTMENT; INVESTMENTS; JOB; JOBS; LEVY; MARKET; MARKETS; MONEY; PAY; REVENUE*; SALARIES; SALARY; SAVING; SAVINGS; SELL; SELLING; SOLD; SPEND; SPENDING; SPENT; TAX; TAXATION; TAXED; TAXES; TAXING; TRADE; TRADED; TRADING; UNEMPLOYMENT; WAGE; WAGES; WEALTH; WORK; WORKED; WORKS; WORKING. OTHER EDUCATION ACADEMIES; APPRENTICESHIP; APPRENTICESHIPS; COLLEGE; COLLEGES; EDUCATION; EDUCATIONAL; INSTRUCTION; LEARNING; SCHOOL*; STUDY; STUDYING; TRAINING; TEACH*.

HEALTH DOCTOR; DOCTORS; HEALTH; NATIONAL_HEALTH_SERVICE; NHS; NURSE; NURSES; PATIENTS.


SOCIAL WELFARE ANTISOCIAL; CHILDCARE; HOME; BENEFITS. FOREIGN POLICY AFGHANISTAN; AID; EU; EUROPE; GLOBAL; INTERNATIONAL . HIGHER EDUCATION ACADEMIC_FREEDOM; DEGREE; DEGREES; HIGHER_EDUCATION; PEER-REVIEWED; TUITION_FEES; UNDERGRADUATES; UNIVERSITY; UNIVERSITIES. IMMIGRATION AMNESTY; BORDER; BULGARIA; IMMIGRANTS; IMMIGRATION; ASYLUM; POLAND; ROMANIA; QUOTA_SYSTEM

Methodological appendix commitment strength


PROMISES AND COMMITMENTS FIRM COMMITMENT COMMITMENTS; COMMITTED; DUTY; ENSURE; GUARANTEE; GUARANTEED; GUARANTEEING; GUARANTEES; PLEDGES; POLICIES; POLICY; PROMISES; SECURE; WE_WILL. HOPES AND ASPIRATIONS AMBITION; CHANGED; DREAMS; FAIR; GOAL; GOALS; HOPE; HOPEFUL; PLANS; WISH. POLICY VERBS ABIDE; ABOLISH; ACT; AIM; CHANGE; CUT; INCREASE; MAKE; SUPPORT; REFORM.

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