What is the Share of Corporations in the Political Media Discourse? Examining and Explaining Corporations’ Presence in the Media Through Institutional Variation

According to a substantial body of research, the media as outsider platforms could contribute to more diverse interest group systems. The latter is important as democracies flourish when different voices are expressed in the public debate. Scholarly work however, indicates that in some contexts, business groups dominate the political media discourse. In other contexts, studies show that the discourse became more diverse where public and sectional groups are increasingly dominant. Yet, it is unclear how we should compare these findings as corporations are often, but not always, excluded from work on outside strategies. We are therefore kept in the dark concerning the actual scope of outside strategic activities of business organizations in the political media discourse, and which type of actors dominate the media landscape. What is more, we know little about the determinants of the presence of corporations in the political media discourse. This attempt seeks to fill this gap by using innovative text collection and analysis methods. In doing so, it maps the presence of corporations in the political media discourse compared to other organized interests such as NGOs and (business)associations in four important British and Dutch national daily newspapers over the past three decades. More specifically, it aims to explain corporations’ presence through institutional variation by employing a longitudinal and cross-sectional research design.