The Effect of Politicians’ Personality on Their Media Visibility

Eran Amsalem; Alon Zoizner; Tamir Sheafer; Stefaan Walgrave; Peter John Loewen

doi:10.1177/0093650218758084

The Effect of Politicians’ Personality on Their Media Visibility

Eran Amsalem, Alon Zoizner, Tamir Sheafer, Stefaan Walgrave, Peter John Loewen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

While being frequently covered in the news media is key to political success, previous research demonstrates that some politicians are systematically more visible in the media than others. The current study advances our understanding of which politicians gain higher media visibility by exploring the effects of their personality traits. Utilizing a unique sample of 339 incumbent politicians in three countries, we find that the two personality traits that speak directly to one’s interpersonal orientation—agreeableness and extraversion—affect visibility, with less agreeable and more extraverted politicians appearing more frequently in the news. We also find that open to experience and emotionally stable politicians get covered more frequently and that being highly conscientious predicts media visibility in some cases, but not in others. Politicians high on these traits, we argue, enjoy an inherent advantage in the competition for the media’s attention.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1079-1102
Number of pages	24
Journal	Communication Research
Volume	47
Issue number	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650218758084
State	Published - 1 Oct 2020
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The authors gratefully acknowledge support of the European Research Council (Advanced Grant “INFOPOL,” 295735) and of the Research Fund of the University of Antwerp (Grant 26827). Stefaan Walgrave (University of Antwerp) is principal investigator of the INFOPOL project, which has additional teams in Israel (led by Tamir Sheafer) and Canada (led by Stuart Soroka and Peter Loewen).

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2018.

Keywords

mass media
method
news and newsworthiness
survey
topics

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Language and Linguistics
Communication
Linguistics and Language

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10.1177/0093650218758084

Cite this

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abstract = "While being frequently covered in the news media is key to political success, previous research demonstrates that some politicians are systematically more visible in the media than others. The current study advances our understanding of which politicians gain higher media visibility by exploring the effects of their personality traits. Utilizing a unique sample of 339 incumbent politicians in three countries, we find that the two personality traits that speak directly to one{\textquoteright}s interpersonal orientation—agreeableness and extraversion—affect visibility, with less agreeable and more extraverted politicians appearing more frequently in the news. We also find that open to experience and emotionally stable politicians get covered more frequently and that being highly conscientious predicts media visibility in some cases, but not in others. Politicians high on these traits, we argue, enjoy an inherent advantage in the competition for the media{\textquoteright}s attention.",

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N1 - Funding Information: The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The authors gratefully acknowledge support of the European Research Council (Advanced Grant “INFOPOL,” 295735) and of the Research Fund of the University of Antwerp (Grant 26827). Stefaan Walgrave (University of Antwerp) is principal investigator of the INFOPOL project, which has additional teams in Israel (led by Tamir Sheafer) and Canada (led by Stuart Soroka and Peter Loewen). Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2018.

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The Effect of Politicians’ Personality on Their Media Visibility

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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