Res Publica |
|
Article | Politicologen in het Vlaamse televisienieuws: wetenschappers of commentatoren? |
Keywords | scientists, media, news sources, television news, experts |
Authors | Julie Sevenans en Stefaan Walgrave |
DOI | 10.5553/RP/048647002016058002002 |
Show PDF Abstract Author's information Statistics Citation |
This article has been viewed times. |
This article been downloaded 0 times. |
Julie Sevenans and Stefaan Walgrave, "Politicologen in het Vlaamse televisienieuws: wetenschappers of commentatoren?", Res Publica, 2, (2016):167-188
This paper studies how scientists appear as news sources in Flemish television news. The focus lies on (1) which political scientists serve as news source, (2) how they are portrayed, and (3) whether their appearances in the news differ from those of scientists from other disciplines. By means of a content analysis over a three-year period (July 2011 – June 2014), the paper shows that political scientists mainly appear in the news to comment upon topical events. Items featuring scientists from other disciplines – other human sciences and especially natural sciences – are more often related to scientific research. Political scientists use other arguments than natural scientists, whose contributions contain less own opinions, and more concrete data and figures, and human scientists (including political scientists) are less often interviewed in a research environment. In the concluding section, the potential consequences of these media appearances for political science as a discipline are discussed. |