Popularization and personalization: a historical and cultural analysis of 50 years of Dutch political television journalism

Politicians, journalists and scholars in the Netherlands and abroad regularly express their concern about the negative influence of television journalism on the quality of public debate and political trust. The concern usually focuses on an alleged popularization of political journalism and personalization of politics. This dissertation shows that their concern is unjustified. Five systematic and longitudinal studies of political television journalism in the Netherlands show that there is no reason to worry about the scope and quality of public debate. Popularization and personalization, to the extent they occur, have not impoverished Dutch political television journalism.