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Presenting Parliament: Parliamentarians' visions of the communication and role of parliament within the mediated democracies of Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands, 1844-1995

Project description

Putting parliaments in the public spotlight

The main responsibility of a parliament is to represent the citizens. As such, parliaments play a major role in democracies and are monitored by the media. But how do parliaments – as collectives – communicate to the public? The EU-funded PresentingParliament project will answer this question. It will conduct a longitudinal and comparative analysis of parliamentary debates on parliament's own engagement with the press, radio, TV and internet in Belgium, Britain and the Netherlands between 1844 and 1995. Specifically, it will study the arguments parliamentarians voiced against parliament’s use of new means of communication, as well as how and why parliamentarians wanted to use new media to communicate parliament to the public. The project will also review how parliamentarians envisioned the role of parliament within a (mass) mediated democracy.

Objective

The concept of a ‘personalization of politics’ suggests that media attention has increasingly focussed on personalities such as ministers at the cost of institutions, yet paradoxically parliaments have maintained media visibility. While researchers have studied the relation between media and executive leaders or political parties, there is little scholarship on how parliaments as collectives have communicated to the public. However, democracy fails if citizens cannot see the functioning of their representative body, so parliaments have sought to show their work publicly. This project investigates how they tried to do so, and will thereby demonstrate the important role that parliaments played in the ‘mediatization of politics’. Specifically, it investigates: (1) which arguments parliamentarians voiced against parliament’s use of new means of communication; (2) how and why parliamentarians wanted to use new media to communicate parliament to the public; and (3) how parliamentarians envisioned the role of parliament within a (mass) mediated democracy. The method is a longitudinal and comparative analysis of parliamentary debates on parliament’s engagements with new media – the mass press, radio, television and internet – in Britain, Belgium, and the Netherlands between 1844 and 1995. Debates are found with OCR in the hitherto undigitized parliamentary proceedings of these countries, and are analyzed using the novel topic modelling method. Relevant topics are then selected for qualitative analysis. Dissemination occurs through three articles on the sub questions submitted to journals, seminar and conference presentations, and teaching. The host institution provides international expertise and resources on the history of media-political systems, and the secondments offer additional perspectives, archives, and research networks related to parliamentary history. Overall, the project management experience and teacher certification enable me to become an autonomous academic.

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2019

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Coordinator

LUNDS UNIVERSITET
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 203 852,16
Address
Paradisgatan 5c
22100 Lund
Sweden

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Region
Södra Sverige Sydsverige Skåne län
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 203 852,16
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