Public Debates and Media Coverage

Public Debates

• Public debates are classified as institutionally driven or event-driven.
• Institutionally driven debates are planned and managed by political actors.
• Event-driven debates focus on unexpected events, like natural disasters or terrorist attacks.
• Sources include Hänggli and Beck (2024), Hänggli and Trucco (2022), Lawrence (2000), and Livingston and Bennett (2003).

Debate Types

• Institutionally driven debates are often initiated by political actors for pre-planned events.
• Event-driven debates occur when there are unforeseen events demanding public attention, less planned beforehand.

Traditional Media Coverage

• Media coverage regarding Asylum and Naturalization debates were observed for periods leading up to popular votes.
• The data shows specific arguments on the two debates were highlighted in media coverage before and after the vote.
• The source for this is Hänggli, Regula (2020): The Origin of Dialogue in the News Media. Macmillan: Palgrave.

Naturalization

• Data on Naturalization debates were presented via graphical representations of discussions during periods leading up to popular votes.
• The graph showed the evolution of core versus secondary arguments.

Social Media: National Direct-Democratic Votes

• Social media posts and interactions show a trend of increasing activity around specific national votes.
• The graph shows the volume of posts increasing leading up to votes, then decreasing slightly afterward.
• The graph also shows interaction data following a similar trend.

Political Communication

• Political communication is goal-oriented, focused on specific outcomes.

Traditional Media: Input Material in Swiss Votes

• A table compares input material (like letters to editors, media ads) for different Swiss votes (Asylum, Naturalization, and Corporation Tax), across distinct media channels.
• The table breaks down the communication strategies and their prominence in each vote.

Political Ads

• Pro-side political ads promoted the position of an organized political party on specific initiatives.
• Conversely, contra-side advertisements supported the opposing views against the proposals initiated by the political parties.

Posts on Social Media

• Social media posts were observed to be related to specific campaigns.
• The information content of these indicated the perspective of the posts.

Key factors in frame building: Institutionally driven debates in traditional and social media

• Factors related to the shaping of opinions towards events often heavily influence public debates.
• Different mechanisms, like news media, might focus on certain perspectives depending on the nature of the events.

Key Events

• Key events, like the inauguration of the Gotthard Base Tunnel or Alimi's naturalization, are often tracked to observe how they influence the presence and prominence of different frames in public debates.

Key events influencing presence of frames

• Data table showing the timeframe from January 2015 to June 2018 tracked how various key events influenced the presence of certain communication frames in media coverage about issues, like the immigration initiatives.

Frames Sponsors: Political Actors

• A table indicates which political actors were involved in promoting particular frames during specific political events in Switzerland.

Consequences a Key Event in Frame Building

• Key events often trigger frame sponsors that seek media attention to increase debate and alter public understanding.

Actor Constellations in the AI Media Debate

• A study is described as examining the actors, their perspectives, power imbalances, and the framing of AI in the news, in relation to policy discussions.

Increasing Media Coverage

• A chart visually demonstrates the rise in media coverage of the topic Artificial Intelligence since the 1970s.

AI in the Media

• Media coverage of AI is predominantly positive, focusing on economic benefits rather than social or ethical implications.
• AI is often portrayed as a solution to immediate problems.

Standing in the AI Debate

• Highlights the dominance of journalists and economic actors during the AI debate in the news.

Share of Frames

• Provides data on the proportion of frames (pro or contra) focusing on various aspects of the AI debate.

Danger of the blind leading the blind

• A cartoon commentary on the challenges to democracy in the 21st century.

Resonance in Social Media: Highly Skewed

• The resonance in social media for political parties is disproportionately skewed to a few prominent parties.
• The prominence of different parties is reflected by their presence on social media (seats in parliament, FB pages, posts, interactions).

Resonance in Social Media: Highly Skewed by Gender

• The prominence of different genders in social media is skewed with data showing disparities in presence based on gender for different political aspects.

Results: Types of Actors

• Different actors (e.g., executive authority, legislative authority) were mentioned or quoted in the analyzed articles.
• Data suggests a varying participation of such actors in event-driven and institutionally-driven debates.

Results: Positions of Muslims

• Data presenting the position of Muslims in the analyzed events.
• Shows whether the depicted positions were attributed or quoted from the actors involved.

Results: Journalistic Roles

• Investigates the roles that journalists assume in reporting event-driven and institutionally driven disputes.
• Comparisons were made between journalists' styles regarding events, revealing differences.

Framing of an Imam

• A study examined how imams were framed in news media, and the different perspectives regarding them.

Q&A

• This section is indicated for asking questions related to the topics discussed in the document.

This quiz explores the dynamics of public debates, focusing on institutionally driven versus event-driven categories. It highlights how traditional media shapes the discourse around critical issues like asylum and naturalization leading up to major votes. Participants will delve into key sources to understand the impact of media on public debates.