Does All News Mean Good News? : A study in the complexity of how exposure in newspapers affect opinion numbers

Sammanfattning:

There have been a lot of researches done on political parties and their characteristics in the modern world concerning marketing and communication. This thesis seeks to tap into a new area within this subject by asking a main research question:

How could political parties use exposure in newspapers as a marketing tool to raise opinion numbers?

The theories that has been applied to the thesis consists of findings within several areas; political science, philosophy and psychology. However, emphasize has been to apply it to the area of business administration by connecting it to consumer/voting behavior to explain how through the complexity of exposure and choice forms a voter into voting.

The thesis consist of data concerning opinion numbers spanning over ten years, January 2000 – December 2009, as well as the total number of articles that has been published in four of Sweden’s largest newspapers. Both data sources are to be considered reliable, which is important since the entire thesis consists of secondary data.