AUTNES Content Analysis of Party Press Releases (OTS) 2013

The AUTNES coding of party press releases covers all press releases that were issued by parties gaining at least two percent of the votes in the 2013 national election. The coding procedure applies the AUTNES relational approach of recording subjects, predicates, and objects to press releases. The subject is the person or party that features as the sender of the message in the title of the press release. There are two types of objects: issues and object actors. Issues are recorded by coders selecting from the AUTNES issue coding scheme the one issue that fits the content of the press release’s title best. The issue predicate numerically records whether the subject’s position towards the issue is one of support, rejection, or conveys a neutral/ambivalent stance. This procedure (coding of predicate and issue) is repeated for the subtitle of the press release. Up to three object actors are recorded from the information in the title of the press release, each with their name (if an individual is present) and organizational affiliation, as well as the evaluation by the subject actor (positive, negative or neutral). In addition to the basic subject–predicate–object structure we code four more variables: character traits for all object actors, party records for all subject and object actors, justifications for issue statements, and the incident that triggered the press release.

Topics: party authoring the press release; sender (the three-letter APA channel through which the press release was sent); keywords of the press release; title; subtitle; wording; name of first and second subject actor; organizational affiliation of these subject actors; reference to subject actor’s record; issue of title and subtitle; issue predicate of title and subtitle (position towards the coded issue of title and subtitle); reference of title and subtitle to policy at the EU level; justification of issue; upt to three object actors: name and organizational affiliation; object actor predicates (the relation between the subject and each object actor as support, criticism/rejection, or neutral); reference to object actor’s record; reference to object actor’s attributes; trigger variables: arena in which the press release was triggered; name and organizational affiliation of the individual who triggered the press release; bipartisan press release (press release was issued in by politicians from two different parties).

Additionally coded was: pre selection-ID; ID of individual press releases; coder-ID.