Mass media as a political career maker

Many voters are not politically interested and form their ideas and opinions based on who or what they see in the media. This makes getting into the media crucial for political actors and by extension their political success. Although most political communication scholars believe in this media influence, not many empirical studies have really looked into this. Political career success is often simply reduced to electoral success.
My research focuses on the impact of media on three important career stages: the candidate selection of political parties, gaining popularity and being promoted or elected into higher office. The influence of media on these career steps is studied by conducting elite interviews on the one hand, and by analyzing news coverage in terms of visibility and tone on the other hand. Newspaper articles for a period of almost 20 years (2000-2019) were collected and analyzed using automated content analysis. This dissertation shows that media do indeed have an effect on political career success. It increases, in a very early stage, the probability of being selected as a candidate for the ballot list. Later on, media attention positively affects the overall popularity of individual politicians and can, ultimately, significantly increase the probability of being promoted or being elected as a minister/party leader. Overall, members of parliament (MPs) cannot compete with government members. They can, however, try to distinguish themselves from other MPs by using media skills, which leads to media access that can put them on the pathway towards a successful political career.