A campanha eleitoral de 2005 nos media: Padrões e factores de exposição

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the Portuguese legislative elections of 2005, and starts by identifying the patterns that characterized the voter’s exposition to the media during the campaign, using survey data collected by the Portuguese Electoral Behaviour Project. Afterwards, and based on the same data, the author analyses the factors which explain the degree of exposure to the media in the two weeks before the elections, going beyond the mere study of media effects and trying to understand the root of the political persuasion processes – exposure. In terms of patterns, the study revealed that the average Portuguese voter followed the campaign to those legislative elections quite often; moreover, television is, not surprisingly, the predominant information source, being followed by the press and, lastly, the radio. This study also revealed that the exposure to written outlets (newspapers and news magazines) is more affected by a series of political attitudes than the use of audiovisual outlets (television and radio) – for instance, the former are mostly used by people with higher perceptions of political efficacy, whereas exposure to the latter is not influenced by this factor