The democratic quality of political depictions in fictional TV entertainment. A comparative content analysis of the political drama<i>Borgen</i>and the journalistic magazine<i>Berlin direkt</i>

  • AbstractThe quality of political reporting in the news media is a focal point of communication research. Politics, however, is not only conveyed via traditional sources of information, but via fictional sources. In particular, political dramas (e. g., The West Wing, Borgen) enjoy great popularity and are often acknowledged for their realistic depiction of politics. Still, little is known about the democratic quality of such fictional depictions. This paper aims to fill the gap by contrasting the depiction of politics in the fictional TV series Borgen with political reporting in a traditional TV magazine (Berlin direkt). The comparative content analysis is based on ten issues that are covered in both formats and focuses on the quality criteria of relevance, pluralism, and democratic discourse norms. Findings show no significant differences between Borgen and Berlin direkt for any of the three criteria, clearly indicating that fictional TV series can offer the same content quality asAbstractThe quality of political reporting in the news media is a focal point of communication research. Politics, however, is not only conveyed via traditional sources of information, but via fictional sources. In particular, political dramas (e. g., The West Wing, Borgen) enjoy great popularity and are often acknowledged for their realistic depiction of politics. Still, little is known about the democratic quality of such fictional depictions. This paper aims to fill the gap by contrasting the depiction of politics in the fictional TV series Borgen with political reporting in a traditional TV magazine (Berlin direkt). The comparative content analysis is based on ten issues that are covered in both formats and focuses on the quality criteria of relevance, pluralism, and democratic discourse norms. Findings show no significant differences between Borgen and Berlin direkt for any of the three criteria, clearly indicating that fictional TV series can offer the same content quality as political reporting.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author:Cordula Nitsch, Olaf Jandura, Peter Bienhaus
Qualitätssicherung:peer reviewed
Fachbereich/Einrichtung:Hochschule Düsseldorf / Fachbereich - Wirtschaftswissenschaften
Document Type:Article
Year of Completion:2019
Language of Publication:English
Publisher:Walter de Gruyter
Parent Title (English):Communications
Volume:46
Issue:1
Page Number:21
First Page:74
Last Page:94
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1515/commun-2019-2076
ISSN:1613-4087
Dewey Decimal Classification:3 Sozialwissenschaften / 33 Wirtschaft / 330 Wirtschaft
Licence (German):keine Lizenz - nur Metadaten
Release Date:2025/08/13
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