Abstract

In her book A Virtuous Circle , Pippa Norris decidedly chooses the side of the media optimists. Based on impressive empirical evidence, she counters mainstream video-malaise theories, and substantiates convincingly that newspaper readers and TV-news viewers are not more civically disengaged. On the contrary, news consumers show more of the attitudinal and behavioural characteristics highly valued in a democracy.A whole range of indicators of political knowledge, trust and mobilization is positively associated with the use of news media. Norris’s study could be criticized in two ways. First, there is more to be watched on television and to be read in newspapers than news alone. Most people watch television not for the news programmes but for entertainment, movies, soaps, etc. Even if most news as such could be a positive factor enhancing political interest and trust, all the other much more frequently viewed and read media outlets might be detrimental for democratic attitudes. In the end, the media record might not be so favourable.Secondly, and this is the point we want to make in our paper, the content of the news cannot be dismissed so easily. It is quiet possible that, in general, news programmes or newspaper coverage stir the noblest political attitudes among their consumers, but that some news media poison public opinion and distort the political process. Norris goes into the content of the news, but in assessing its impact on civic attitudes, she scarcely differentiates news outlets. Which newspapers and TV stations are people confronted with and what is their editorial content? And are some news programmes, or features of news programmes, measurably feeding anti-political attitudes? In this exploratory article, we will attempt to show that the specific content of the news could be important in determining whether news is a good or a bad thing for democracy. More specifically, we will attempt to assess whether the Flemish news media, through their news coverage of certain news topics, and their overexposure of specific issues, have contributed to the making of the Flemish right-wing party, the VB .This party could hardly be called a good thing for Belgian democracy. Maybe some media boosted electoral support for the VB by championing the issues which the VB owns?