The Origin of Dialogue in the News Media

Book excerpt: This book develops a new theoretical framework for studying the interaction between political parties, the news media and citizens. The model addresses how political actors develop and push different arguments in a debate, how the news media select and communicate these arguments, and how they ultimately influence citizens’ democratic decisions. The author promotes dialogue as a convincing concept for analyzing the quality of public debate and advances a series of arguments for why and how this concept helps improve our understanding of key processes in democracy. Based on a detailed analysis of rich empirical data collected from referendum campaigns in Switzerland, the book is relevant beyond the specific context and applicable to election campaigns and public debates more broadly.