Drs. Janet Takens

Monday till Thursday

information in Dutch 

 

Current Research

• Effects of personalized news, strategic news, and negative news on changes in voting behaviour and vote motivations.
  

PhD Project

Short-term media logic and the long-term viability of democracy

For my PhD-research I study the effects different elements of political news coverage, which have been associated with the short-term media logic. The elements of news coverage under study are the level of strategic news coverage, the level of personalized news coverage, and the tone of the news.

Additionally, the effects of these variables on political attitudes that might endanger the long-term viability of democracy are analyzed. The political attitudes in which I am interested, which arguably could harm the long-term viability of the functioning of the democratic system, are: volatility and non-policy based voting. The periods under study are the election campaigns of 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006, and 2010. My study is based on longitudinal content analysis data gathered by means of Semantic Network analysis and (panel) survey data.

For my PhD-research I study four elements of political news coverage, which in its degenerated appearance form the short-term media logic, and its effects on political attitudes that might endanger the long-term viability of democracy. The elements of news coverage under study are the level of strategic news coverage, personalization in the news, the tone of the news, and the issue attention span. The political attitudes in which I am interested, which arguably could harm the long-term viability of the functioning of the democratic system, are: volatility, political cynicism and non-policy based voting. The periods under study are the election campaigns of 1972, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006, and the coming election year. My study is based on longitudinal content analysis data gathered by means of Semantic Network analysis and (panel) survey data.

Recent Publications

• Kleinnijenhuis, J. and J. Takens (2011). Het politieke nieuwsaanbod van dagbladen en televisie: Objectief en pluriform? In J. Thomassen en R. Andeweg (Eds.): Democratie doorgelicht. Het functioneren van de Nederlandse democratie, Leiden: Leiden University Press.
• Takens, J., A.M.J. van Hoof, J. Kleinnijenhuis, and W. van Atteveldt (2011). Do New Parties Bring Personalization, a Narrow Issue Agenda and Populist Rhetoric? Evidence from dutch Election Campaign Coverage from 1998 to 2006. In Van Haaften, T., H. Jansen, J. de Jong and W. Koetsenruijter (Eds.), Bending Opinion.Essays on Persuasion in the Public Domain. (p. 325-345) Amsterdam: Leiden University Press,
• Takens, J, N. Ruigrok, A.M.J. Van Hoof, and O. Scholten (2010) Old Ties in a New(s) perspective. European Journal of Communication Research, 35(4): 417–438.
• Kleinnijenhuis, J., D. Oegema,en J. Takens . (2009). Personalisering van de politiek, in: Voerman, G., Jaarboek 2007, Groningen: Documentatiecentrum Nederlandse Politieke Partijen.
• Kleinnijenhuis, J., O. Scholten, W. Van Atteveldt, A. Van Hoof, A. Krouwel, D. Oegema, J. De Ridder, N. Ruigrok, and J. Takens (2007). Nederland vijfstromenland. Amsterdam: Bert Bakker.
• Kleinnijenhuis, J., Takens, J., and W. Van Atteveldt (2005). Toen Europa de dagbladen ging vullen, In Aarts, K. and H. Van der Kolk (Eds.): Nederlanders en Europa. Het referendum over de Europese grondwet.(p. 123-144) Amsterdam: Bert Bakker.