The democratic quality of political depictions in fictional TV entertainment. A comparative content analysis of the political drama Borgen and the journalistic magazine Berlin direkt
Abstract
The quality of political reporting in the news media is a focal point of communication research. Politics, however, is not only conveyed via traditional sources of information, but via fictional sources. In particular, political dramas (e. g., The West Wing, Borgen) enjoy great popularity and are often acknowledged for their realistic depiction of politics. Still, little is known about the democratic quality of such fictional depictions. This paper aims to fill the gap by contrasting the depiction of politics in the fictional TV series Borgen with political reporting in a traditional TV magazine (Berlin direkt). The comparative content analysis is based on ten issues that are covered in both formats and focuses on the quality criteria of relevance, pluralism, and democratic discourse norms. Findings show no significant differences between Borgen and Berlin direkt for any of the three criteria, clearly indicating that fictional TV series can offer the same content quality as political reporting.
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Artikel in diesem Heft
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Titelseiten
- Editorial
- Editorial 2021
- Articles
- “Not how much, but how.” Contextualizing the presentation of violence broadcast on television: Normativity and narrative genres
- Beyond empowerment, experimentation and reasoning: The public discourse around the Quantified Self movement
- Being media literate about media policy, a bridge too far in Flanders/Belgium
- The democratic quality of political depictions in fictional TV entertainment. A comparative content analysis of the political drama Borgen and the journalistic magazine Berlin direkt
- In medias res – the mediation conundrum
- Like-minded and cross-cutting talk, network characteristics, and political participation online and offline: A panel study
- The differential effects of related and unrelated emotions on judgments about media messages
- Book reviews
- Waisbord, S. R. (2019). Communication: A post-discipline. Cambridge: Polity Press. 171 pp.
- Christians, C. (2019). Media ethics and global justice in the digital age. NY: Cambridge University Press. 428 pp.
- Paulmann, J. (Ed.) (2019). Humanitarianism & media: 1900 to the present. Oxford: Berghahn Books. 316 pp.