Balanced Political Communication at the Local Level? Amendment to the Press Act and Its Implementation in the Content of the Municipal Periodicals of the Regional Towns of the Czech Republic in 2014 Cover Image

Vyvážená politická komunikace na lokální úrovni? Novela tiskového zákona a její naplňování v obsahu obecních zpravodajů krajských měst České republiky v roce 2014
Balanced Political Communication at the Local Level? Amendment to the Press Act and Its Implementation in the Content of the Municipal Periodicals of the Regional Towns of the Czech Republic in 2014

Author(s): Michal Soukop, Hana Hurtíková
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Electoral systems
Published by: Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Fakulta sociálních věd
Keywords: local political communication; municipal periodicals; amendment to the Press Act in 2013; municipal elections 2014; the balance of political content; democratic culture

Summary/Abstract: Municipal periodicals, as a tool of political communication at the local level, have the potential to improve citizens‘ awareness and thus the quality of local administration. However, in the past they faced criticism because of the imbalance and favouring of the ruling coalitions, which the amendment of the Press Act of 2013 responded to. The article focuses on the analysis of the balance of the political content of the municipal periodicals of the regional towns in the Czech Republic during the 2014 election year. Emphasis is placed on testing the assumption that ruling coalition will be favoured in the content of municipal periodicals, not only before the municipal elections (Autumn 2014). By the quantitative content analysis of the text of the municipal periodicals the article verifies the balance of the frequency of the mentions about coalition and opposition parties, with objective consideration of the social importance of the parties. The article highlights the persistent problems with the continual imbalance in the political content of the municipal periodicals in favour of the municipal coalition and suggests a partial solution to the problems.

  • Issue Year: 12/2020
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 87-104
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Czech