How Ordinary MPs Can Make it Into the News: A Factorial Survey Experiment with Political Journalists...

Parliamentarians have to compete against each other to make it into the news, and some of them succeed more than others. Based upon news value theory, I consider MPs' characteristics as news factors to explain their newsworthiness. I take an innovative approach by conducting a factorial survey experiment with political journalists. This allows me to study first which MPs are considered newsworthy and second whether journalists judge MPs' newsworthiness regardless of their own personal background. In total, 73 Belgian journalists each judged 8 fictional press releases in which we carefully manipulated 4 characteristics of the MP sending it: party affiliation, issue specialization, media reactivity, and political action. Results show that parliamentarians from larger parties, those who react on mediatized issues, and those who communicate about their bill proposals are more newsworthy. Journalists' judgments do not differ according to their gender, age, education, or political leaning.