Presentation given at the APSA Political Communication section pre-conference at the University of Illinois at Chicago, August 2013.

1. Communicating policy through news:
mediatizing the manifesto?
Nick Anstead
APSA Political Communication Pre-Conference,
Wednesday 28th August 2013, University of Illinois at Chicago
[email] n.m.anstead@lse.ac.uk
[twitter] @nickanstead

3. The Liberal Democrats on Higher Education
“He [Nick Clegg] was very clear
about the package of four
issues as he went into the
election. Now that wasn’t
made up on the hoof, that was
four issues that everyone in
the party knew and completely
understood would be the basis
for any kind of discussions, and
they are on the front cover of
the manifesto” (Olly
Grender, former Liberal
Democrat Head of
Communications, May 7th
2010, BBC Today Programme).

4. The study of party manifestos
• Huge content-driven efforts to codify manifesto content, notably
The Comparative Manifesto project which has coded more than
3500 documents published by 900 parties in 55 countries (Volkens
et al., 2013).
• These data have been used to address two broad research
questions:
– Quantifying political parties positions on a left-right spectrum (for
example Laver & Garry, 2000; Adams & Somer-Topcu, 2009; Dinas &
Gemenis, 2009)
– Assessing the effectiveness of governments at achieving their policy
platforms after a successful election (Mansergh and Thomson, 2007;
Royed, 1996; Royed and Borelli, 1999).
• Kavanagh (1981) gives manifestos an important institutional role.

5. Research questions
• How does the content of the Liberal Democrat
manifesto relate to the way that the party
tried to present itself in the media?
• How does it relate to the way they were
actually presented in the media?
• Normatively, what ramifications does this
have for the traditional idea of the party
platform?

6. Method
• Dataset:
– Liberal Democrat manifesto text ; Liberal
Democrat press releases; Nick Clegg press
releases; and newspaper stories relating to Liberal
Democrat policy, all for election campaign period.
• Method:
– Dictionary-based computer aided content analysis
using Wordstat package (see final slides for
additional details).

7. Appearance of dictionary terms

8. Relative appearance of dictionary terms
Man NCPR difference LDPR difference NP Difference
POLICYECONOMY 0.67 0.03 0.14 0.02
POLICYFOREIGN POLICY 0.08 0.07 0.06 0.01
POLICYHEALTH 0.06 0.12 0.01 0.04
POLICYHIGHER EDUCATION 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.01
POLICYIMMIGRATION 0.02 0.01 0.00 0.08
POLICYOTHER EDUCATION 0.12 0.04 0.09 0.07
POLICYSOCIAL WELFARE 0.03 0.00 0.01 0.01

9. Relative appearance of dictionary terms
Man NCPR difference LDPR difference NP Difference
POLICYECONOMY 0.67 0.03 0.14 0.02
POLICYFOREIGN POLICY 0.08 0.07 0.06 0.01
POLICYHEALTH 0.06 0.12 0.01 0.04
POLICYHIGHER EDUCATION 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.01
POLICYIMMIGRATION 0.02 0.01 0.00 0.08
POLICYOTHER EDUCATION 0.12 0.04 0.09 0.07
POLICYSOCIAL WELFARE 0.03 0.00 0.01 0.01

10. Preliminary findings

11. Preliminary findings

12. Type of commitment made

13. Preliminary findings

14. Ramifications for classic questions
• One defence the Liberal Democrats have is that
entering coalition government meant they had to
negotiate – but priorities remain important.
• However, Nick Clegg’s communication during the
election campaign was substantially different from his
party’s manifesto:
– Judged on the appearance of dictionary terms, he spoke
about higher education twice as much as the manifesto.
• News coverage of the Liberal Democrats greatly over-
emphasised immigration, relative to manifesto content
– although this may be driven by a couple of
publications (notably The Mail and Express).

15. Ramifications for classic questions
• What role does news coverage play in this
process?
• While Clegg’s talking points were not the same as
the manifesto, the newspapers also had a distinct
agenda, focusing heavily on immigration
(although we can infer that certain outlets may
be heavily responsible for this).
• As such the idea of the mediatized manifesto is
inherently contested between parties, and
supportive and oppositional media.

16. Conclusions
• Perhaps this goes someway towards explaining the
anger directed at Clegg, and the failure of the
manifesto-based defence employed by the Liberal
Democrats
• More broadly, this difference in content between the
manifesto and political communications challenges the
institutional role of the manifesto in parliamentary
democracies.
• This is especially true in plurality systems where
formerly two-party systems are fragmenting and hung
parliaments are increasingly likely.

17. Further work
• In terms of this paper, data tidying is
important and continuing to improve the
dictionary.
• More data? Social media feeds? What would
this show?
• Future research project? – apply the concept
of mediatized manifesto to classic questions of
manifesto studies i.e. spatial arrangement of
parties and legislative success.

18. Methodological appendix – policy dictionary
ECONOMICS
ASSETS; BAILED_OUT; BANKING; BANKS; BUSINESS; BUSINESSES; CAPITAL; CASH; COMPANIES; COMPANY; CORPORATION; CORPORATIONS;
EARNINGS; ECONOMIES; ECONOMY; EMPLOYED; EMPLOYING; EMPLOYMENT; ENTERPRISE; ENTERPRISES; EQUITY; FINANCIAL; FISCAL;
INCOME; INCOMES; INVEST*; INVESTMENT; INVESTMENTS; JOB; JOBS; LEVY; MARKET; MARKETS; MONEY; PAY; REVENUE*; SALARIES;
SALARY; SAVING; SAVINGS; SELL; SELLING; SOLD; SPEND; SPENDING; SPENT; TAX; TAXATION; TAXED; TAXES; TAXING; TRADE; TRADED;
TRADING; UNEMPLOYMENT; WAGE; WAGES; WEALTH; WORK; WORKED; WORKS; WORKING.
OTHER EDUCATION
ACADEMIES; APPRENTICESHIP; APPRENTICESHIPS; COLLEGE; COLLEGES; EDUCATION; EDUCATIONAL; INSTRUCTION; LEARNING; SCHOOL*;
STUDY; STUDYING; TRAINING; TEACH*.
HEALTH
DOCTOR; DOCTORS; HEALTH; NATIONAL_HEALTH_SERVICE; NHS; NURSE; NURSES; PATIENTS.
SOCIAL WELFARE
ANTISOCIAL; CHILDCARE; HOME; BENEFITS.
FOREIGN POLICY
AFGHANISTAN; AID; EU; EUROPE; GLOBAL; INTERNATIONAL .
HIGHER EDUCATION
ACADEMIC_FREEDOM; DEGREE; DEGREES; HIGHER_EDUCATION; PEER-REVIEWED; TUITION_FEES; UNDERGRADUATES; UNIVERSITY;
UNIVERSITIES.
IMMIGRATION
AMNESTY; BORDER; BULGARIA; IMMIGRANTS; IMMIGRATION; ASYLUM; POLAND; ROMANIA; QUOTA_SYSTEM

19. Methodological appendix –
commitment strength
PROMISES AND COMMITMENTS
FIRM COMMITMENT
COMMITMENTS; COMMITTED; DUTY; ENSURE; GUARANTEE;
GUARANTEED; GUARANTEEING; GUARANTEES; PLEDGES; POLICIES;
POLICY; PROMISES; SECURE; WE_WILL.
HOPES AND ASPIRATIONS
AMBITION; CHANGED; DREAMS; FAIR; GOAL; GOALS; HOPE; HOPEFUL;
PLANS; WISH.
POLICY VERBS
ABIDE; ABOLISH; ACT; AIM; CHANGE; CUT; INCREASE; MAKE; SUPPORT;
REFORM.