The theoretical potential of website and newspaper data for analysing political communication processes

Abstract

Abstract : »Das theoretische Potential von Webseiten und Zeitungen als Da-tenquellen fur die Analyse politischer Kommunikationsprozesse« . This article compares the strengths and weaknesses of websites and newspapers as data sources for the analysis of political communication. Both are characterised as process-generated data and thus share various advantages and disadvantages but vary in detail. We argue that the theoretical potential of these data types in analysing political communication is unequal. We highlight the differences of the sources in production bias, selection bias, access to data and in the extent to which those two types of data can be classified. Based on these fundamental characteristics, we claim that the specific qualities of the data types recom-mend them for some kind of questions while disqualifying them for others. While websites tend to be more suitable for analysing interpretive frames of individual actors for political issues rather than political discourses, weak rather than strong actors, and for case studies with a narrow time frame rather than longitudinal analysis, the strengths of newspapers tend to be the reverse. Still, whether to use newspapers, websites, other data sources or a combination of sources depends largely on specific aspects of the research question. Our overview of characteristics and possibilities of websites and newspapers should help the reader to take these factors into account.