Issues concerning immigration and asylum have attracted considerable news media coverage in countries of the Global North such as the United Kingdom during recent decades. The UK national press famous for its longevity, mass appeal and partisanship has been uniquely placed to report on and provide commentary about issues of social change such as these, especially as they have become more prominent in UK party politics. This thesis therefore analyses the press coverage of immigration issues in seven national newspapers during the final week of general election campaigns between 1918 and 2010 in order to provide a historical context to these recent developments. Using content analysis and critical discourse analysis methods, the study assesses several aspects of the representational pattern of immigration coverage and offers a perspective which emphasises continuities and contrasts across time and across the press. Over two empirical chapters, the content analysis provides a thorough profile of the coverage in terms of its volume, the news presence and access of social actors, the balance of supportive and critical voices in coverage, the lexicon used to describe immigrants and immigration processes and the themes of debate. The findings suggest that immigration has become a low-threshold political issue within recent campaigns, for which there is a core element of detailed discussion but an unprecedented expansion in superficial reference to such issues. The prominence, politicisation and problematisation of immigration have combined to frequently provide critical voices with a prominent platform. Meanwhile, supportive voices and those of immigrants were mostly marginalised. There was relatively little variation in the thematic dimension of coverage over time and to some extent across the press. A third empirical chapter offers a critical discourse analysis of the headlines in three main areas of coverage: precarious routes comprising forced and irregular migration, numbers and immigrants as voters and candidates. These aspects of the debate are examined in terms of our and their rights and responsibilities to reveal how the press has constructed the ethics and politics of immigration qualitatively.

This thesis investigates the nature of political marketing practice and identifies factors affecting adoption and utilisation of political marketing and professionalisation of campaigns in a Southern African context. It applies Sriramesh and Vercic (2009) framework to the study of political marketing in emerging international markets, Malawi and South Africa, two countries in Southern Afric Development Community (SADC). These countries share in common their geographical, cultural and democratic foci, but differ in terms of economic and media development.

What is ‘legitimacy’? Is legitimation possible through non-linguistic modes? These are the key theoretical questions with which this study is concerned. It explores them in conjunction with an analysis of American political spot advertisements. These ads are situated at the nexus between legitimation and multimodality, and their relevance to contemporary politics on the world stage is reflected in the immense financial and skilled resources which have been — and continue to be — devoted to them. A historical perspective into legitimation, multimodality and the attendant concepts of rationality and irrationality is given, followed by a discussion challenging the assumed rational role accorded to language. So challenged, the discussion moves to looking at the pairing of multimodality and politics; first from a historical viewpoint, and then from a more contemporary one. The role of myth, in the form of the American Dream, is investigated, leading to discussion of political appropriation, branding, tangibility, affordances and the (im)possibility of restricting interpretation. Spot ads are analysed with a specific focus: first on modal salience, and secondly on how the semiotic richness of the concept of nature is exploited for purposes of legitimation.

This thesis seeks to fill a gap in the literature on Mexican politics relating to the analysis of major recent changes in campaign tactics and strategies (usually referred to as ‘campaign professionalisation’) and their causes. I argue that the Mexican experience may shed light on the factors driving the professionalisation of electoral campaigns in new democracies, particularly on the causal role of a number of systemic and party-level variables. Building on the comparative literature on party and campaign change, and using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), this study shows that the professionalisation of presidential campaigns in Mexico was not only driven by the demands of large-scale changes in the Mexican party and media systems during democratisation on candidates’ campaign organisations, but also, to a significant extent, by a number of parties’ organisational features and resources. The argument of the thesis is that while party-specific factors are not the ultimate causes of campaign innovations, they are key mediating conditions between broader systemic changes on the one hand, and campaign behaviour on the other. They are therefore crucial in order to explain cross-party differences in the extent of the adoption of professionalised campaigning in Mexico.

Political parties in the United Kingdom are increasingly focusing their constituency-level campaigns on marginal seats; such a focus has been echoed by academic researchers studying the effectiveness of intense constituency campaigning in boosting local electoral outcomes. Yet there has been little investigation into the impact of the redirection of campaigning resources on safe constituencies; while existing research suggests that intense campaigns are effective in boosting local electoral outcomes, it is possible that a relative lack of campaigning may be harmful. This thesis addresses this gap by exploring in detail the detrimental impact of low level campaigning on both turnout and vote share in safe constituencies by the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats. The study is situated within the literature of campaign effectiveness, also drawing on theories of voter behaviour. It offers a critical evaluation of existing research into constituency campaigning, contending not only that a lack of campaigning can be harmful, but also that these effects are impacted by nuances of local incumbency and party differentials. To explore this, the thesis conducts a quantitative examination of the effects of constituency campaigning conducted at UK general elections from 1987 to 2010. It also expands existing literature in two ways; by formulating and applying a refined way in which to measure relative levels of campaigning, and also exploring the potential of leader visits as a measure of local campaigning for the first time in the UK. The focus on rebalancing attention towards safe constituencies places the concept of marginality at the core of this thesis. In exploring the concept in detail, potential explanations for the origins of marginality are considered, drawing on theories of population stability and party support bases. Using a refined measure of relative levels of campaigning, a link is established between marginality and campaigning, which also considers the important role of incumbency. When exploring the impact of low levels of campaigning, the results indicate that in many cases there is a harmful impact on both turnout and vote share, although the effects are greater for the latter. The findings suggest that local incumbency is a central factor in deciding the detrimental impact of low levels of campaigning, with such campaigns run by opposition parties resulting in far greater declines in their vote share when compared to equivalent campaigns run by incumbents. In an era of increasing focus on marginal constituencies during election campaigns, this thesis explicitly considers the impact of a lack of campaigning in safe constituencies, the role of incumbency and also applies new measures. In doing so, new empirical insights are produced into the importance of constituency campaigning in the UK, through an approach both rooted in and building upon existing studies.

L’objet de ce travail est de comprendre la manière dont les responsables publics nouent des liens de confiance avec un électorat. Le terrain choisi pour répondre à cette interrogation est la campagne municipale toulousaine (2008). A partir de cet exemple, l’hypothèse est de démontrer que la crédibilité des élus passe de plus en plus par les médias. Plus particulièrement par des séquences médiatiques qui cristallisent l’attention collective sur des personnages en scène qui luttent et agissent. Au fur-et-à-mesure que l’actualité avance, des intrigues se nouent et des rebondissements apparaissent. L’ensemble est une histoire globale avec ses temps forts dont la mosaïque d’impressions déploie pour chaque candidat des marqueurs de crédit ou de discrédit. Partant de là, nous retraçons dans un carnet de campagne les épisodes pertinents qui ont contribué à définir les identités, les connaissances et les rapports de force. L’autre partie du travail s’attache à comprendre non plus le traitement médiatique, mais comment la classe politique se positionne face à lui. Ainsi, à travers une analyse sémiotique des discours socialistes, on rend compte de la manière dont la gauche a construit un positionnement. Un positionnement dont la stratégie discursive consiste à reprendre des fragments séquentiels de l’actualité politique nationale entre octobre 2007 et mars 2008. L’enjeu est de démontrer que les médias nationaux sont des registres de sens qui nourrissent le lexique des discours politiques locaux. Cette thèse est un va-et-vient entre le monde politique et celui des médias. Elle est un décodage de la parole et de la stratégie de communication des candidats. / The aim of this study is to understand the way politicians gain the trust of their voters. Based on the council campaign of 2008 we would like to demonstrate that representatives’ credibility depends mostly on their relation with the Medias and especially in moments where they are spotted as achievers. As we got closer to the vote, plots arose and sometimes lead to unexpected cliffhangers. Showing us that politic is a tale, a patchwork of influences in which each politicians credibility is put to the test, labeled as viable or it’s contrary. From that point we track down in a council “diary” the most valuable episodes who defined their identity, knowledge, and their relationships even the most strained. The second goal of this study is to understand the other side of this peculiar relationship and how politics stand when it comes to the Medias. By a comprehensive study of the socialist “speech” we demonstrate the way the labor party has made their stand based mostly on the national political events of 10/2007 to 03/2008. The stakes are to prove that medias are an impressive source for political to feed their program and communication campaign on. And this is how this study is mostly a testimony of the “love/hate” relationship between the media and the politics and how one cannot “live” without the other. The media being very much versatile: a powerful weapon during a campaign as much a dangerous one when poorly handled.

Using a comprehensive firm-level dataset from the National Bureau Statistics (NBS) of China over the period 2000-2007, this thesis studies political connections, intended as the \(lishu\) relationship between Chinese manufacturing firms and central, provincial or local governments. Although extensive studies have investigated firms’ political connections, the \(lishu\) relationship has not been explored. Besides, the literature has generally overlooked an important question: what are the determinants of political connections? To fill this gap, we firstly investigate the determinants of the \(lishu\) relationship. We find that firms’ characteristics, ownerships, financial variables, profitability, and sales growth significantly affect the probability of having a \(lishu\) relationship. We then examine the link between the \(lishu\) relationship and firms’ exporting propensity and intensity. By examining the unobserved firm heterogeneity and the initial conditions problem, we find that the \(lishu\) relationship has a negative impact on firms’ exporting. Furthermore, firm size, productivity, financial health and age are the significant determinants of firms’ exporting. Finally, we explore the links between the \(lishu\) relationship and financial constraints, demonstrating that firms’ financial constraints can be alleviated through a \(lishu\) relationship. This effect is pronounced for firms affiliated with high level of government, foreign firms and firms in financially constrained regions.

Les Systèmes d’Aide au Vote (SAV) comparent, sur des enjeux variés, les positions des utilisateurs avec celles des partis ou des candidats qui sont établies à partir d’une analyse de contenu de leur programme électoral. Les SAV sont un outil d’analyse novateur à usage des politistes puisqu’ils leur permettent de récolter des données empiriques à grande échelle tout au long d’une campagne électorale. L'objectif principal de cette thèse est d'utiliser les données collectées par les SAV afin d’analyser la diffusion d’un site Web à caractère informatif et politique, i.e. les SAV, auprès des internautes dans des systèmes médiatiques différents. Cette thèse teste l'hypothèse selon laquelle l'utilisation des SAV par différents groupes d'électeurs (électeurs partisans, hésitants et indécis) varie selon les systèmes médiatiques. Les analyses des données collectées par des SAV dans sept démocraties électorales représentant trois différents types de systèmes médiatiques (Democratic Corporatist, Liberal et Pluralist Polarized) montrent que les systèmes médiatiques structurent les comportements et influent sur le degré d’exposition à des informations politiques en ligne. Le second apport de cette thèse est l’utilisation des données collectées par un SAV pour l'analyse électorale, notamment pour l’étude du vote sur enjeux et des dynamiques de campagne. Plusieurs analyses sont réalisées dans cette thèse à partir des données recueillies par le SAV français de La Boussole présidentielle. Cette thèse montre que, bien qu’étant non-probabilistes, les échantillons SAV sont très informatifs à condition d’être intégrés dans un cadre de recherche approprié et d’ajuster les biais statistiques. / Online Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) are websites or online applications that show voters which party or candidate is closest to their own political ideas based on how they mark their positions on an ample range of policy issues. In addition to providing voters with reliable information in a structured manner, VAAs are an innovative data-collection tool on issue positions and on a wide set of other indicators. The main scope of this dissertation is to use VAA-collected data to learn about online information exposure during campaigns across media systems. Building on the realistic view of the Web’s political potential and its impact on the public, this dissertation test the hypothesis that VAA use by different voter groups (partisan, doubting and undecided voters) varies across media systems. The analyses of VAA-collected data in seven electoral democracies across three different types of media systems (Democratic Corporatist, Liberal, and Polarized Pluralist) show that media systems are key mediators to explain online information exposure. The second scope of this dissertation is to use VAA-collected data for the sake of electoral analysis, in particular to study issue-voting and campaign dynamics analyses. Several analyses are carried out using data collected by the French VAA of La Boussole présidentielle. This dissertation shows that, despite being non-probabilistic, VAA samples can serve as a very informative tool for the study of political and communication processes during electoral campaigns if integrated within an appropriate research framework and with the use of proper statistical adjustment.

Cette thèse s’attache à étudier l’image politique de Margaret Thatcher à travers des caractéristiques personnelles telles son parcours, ses idées, sa présentation physique, ses postures politiques ou encore les stratégies de communication dont elle fit usage. L’objectif est de mettre en lumière les différents éléments mis en avant par Margaret Thatcher et par les canaux de diffusion d’image, principalement constitués des médias et de son entourage politique. En ce qui concerne le bornage temporel, l’étude tient compte des quarante années qui s’écoulèrent entre la première candidature de Margaret Thatcher à une élection, pour la circonscription de Dartford en 1950, et la fin de son dernier mandat de Premier ministre en 1990. Cette thèse présente également l’intérêt de porter sur une période qui vit de nombreuses techniques de communication politique se développer : les conseillers en communication vinrent à jouer un rôle prépondérant. / The main ambition of this PhD thesis is to provide a study of Margaret Thatcher’s political image through the lens of various personal characteristics like her experience, ideas, physical presentation, political postures or the communication strategies she relied on. The objective is to emphasize the different elements put forward by Margaret Thatcher and by the image transmission channels, notably the media and her political circle. The period studied encompasses the forty years that went by between the first time Margaret Thatcher stood for election, for the Dartford constituency in 1950, until the end of her last Prime Ministerial mandate in 1990. This PhD thesis also has the advantage of focusing on a period of time during which many political communication techniques developed while communication advisers came to play a predominant role.

Notre thèse se présente sous le titre : « La citoyenneté libanaise aux prises avec les médias, nouveaux et traditionnels, face aux conflits religieux et communautaires ; une amplification ou une réduction des fractures ?». Notre thèse est avant tout une question posée sur le pluriculturalisme qui constitue la société libanaise, qui la spécifie, et qui représente une richesse socioculturelle et sociopolitique qui intéresse les Sciences de l’information et de la communication. Les médias audiovisuels, électroniques (sites web, journaux électroniques, blogs internet, etc.) seront la source susceptible d’alimenter toutes ces facettes culturelles, politiques, économiques, ethniques, religieuses, etc. Depuis longtemps la réalité confessionnelle politisée libanaise est imprégnée plus ou moins sensiblement par les médias traditionnels, et récemment les nouveaux médias ou sites web. La structure libanaise de la citoyenneté serait basée en priorité sur quatre conditions fondamentales : communauté, médias, citoyens, Etat. Le citoyen libanais appartient par nature à une communauté dans laquelle il est lié aux autres par les liens de la religion et de la confession, ce qui donne au Libanais un sentiment particulier d’appartenance identitaire. De ce fait, cette communauté religieuse, cherche toujours à s’auto – défendre et à s’exprimer afin de préserver son existence et sa continuité, et les médias peuvent jouer un rôle majeur en ce sens : chaque communauté possède son média qui constitue son porte – parole. C’est ainsi, que la communauté médiatisée avec tous ses rites et convictions politico – communautaires, occupe le premier rang des préoccupations des Libanais, alors que les principes citoyenneté – Etat pour un grand nombre de Libanais, occupent un rang secondaire.C’est dans ce domaine que nous allons analyser au cours de notre recherche, le versant contemporain de l’opinion publique grâce au regard des technologies numériques et digitales, de la communication médiatisée, ainsi que la vision politico-sociale présentée par les quotidiens. / The title of our thesis is: “The Lebanese citizenship grappling with the new and traditional Medias, facing religious and community conflicts; amplifications or reductions of fractures?” Our thesis in the first place is a question asked about multiculturalism which constitutes the Lebanese society, specifies it, and represents sociocultural and sociopolitical wealth which interests the Information and Communication Sciences. The Audiovisual and Electronic Media (Web Sites, Electronic Newspapers, Internet Blogs, etc.) will be the source likely to feed all these cultural, political, economic, ethnic and religious faces.Since a long time, the Lebanese politically confessional reality is more or less impregnated by the traditional Media, and recently the new Media or Web Sites.The Lebanese structure of citizenship would be based in priority on four fundamental conditions: Community, Media, Citizen and State. The Lebanese Citizen belongs by nature to a community in which he is bound to others by bonds of religion which gives the Lebanese a particular feeling of identity. Thereby, the religious community, always seeks to defend itself and to express itself in order to preserve its existence and its continuity, and this is done by the Media: each community has its own media, which is its spokesperson. Thus, the community mediatized with all its rites and political-community convictions occupy the forefront of Lebanese concerns. While the principles of citizenships and state for a large number of Lebanese occupy the secondary rank.It is in this area that we will analyze during our research the contemporary face of public opinion possibly enlightened by the new technology of communication, the opinion mediatized as well as the politico-social vision presented by the daily newspapers.