in what country is the media's views most similar to its electorate?

[rob in cal]

  Anyone have any thoughts on this. Basically I'm looking for studies that show media personnel in a country to have roughly similar political views as the electorate as a whole. For the US most studies I've found show a very strong tilt toward the Democrats over Republicans, with some variance based on the study.  Would be interesting to see what some multi party democracies would show on this.

[CumbrianLefty]

Well it isn't the UK, that's for sure.

[dead0man]

Russia maybe?

[Storr]

Russia maybe?

That's what I was thinking, though it's hard to get an accurate measure of Russian opinion.

[parochial boy]

Hmm, if you're Swiss German you've probably got something that works for you no matter where you are on the political spectrum

Die Weltwoche if you spend your days wetting your pants about the foreigners, the muslamics, the poor and the gays

Neue Zürcher Zeitung if you think the thing with the Nazi gold was just good business sense and your carefully considered solution to every political issues is to cut taxes

Tages-Anzeiger if you are smug "centre-leftist" who appreciates ethnic food and art galleries, hates flag throwing and wrestling, still thinks Switzerland should joing the EU, and think the main problem with the country is the mullet wearing, earringed, uncultured racists in Thuragu who vote SVP

Watson if your main hobbies are night clubs and Tik Tok and you mostly like to read the news the form of lists

20 Minuten if you are mainly interested in reading about Kosovan men killing their wives, Kosovan gangsters stealing cars or Kosovan teenagers beating up their classmates

Blick if you are functionally illiterate

Woz if you are convinved the revolution is just round the corner (just as soon as we convince the people Der Tagi hates that socialism is the true path) and consider Black Lives Matter to be a corporate shill, misogynistic, white supremicist movement

Republik if you want to read a 30'000 word article covering basically the same points that Watson covered in 300 with its "10 reasons why ketchup is better than mustard"

One of the local papers if you are of the opinion that the guys from the next valley over are a bunch of dirty foreigners who should stay on their side of the mountain

Compare to French Switzerland where basically every newspaper follows the same "let's not rock the boat, moderately socially progressive, economically centrist" line. On the basis that there aren't enough French-Swiss for any newspaper trying to be actually "political" to survive.

[Damocles]

Hmm, if you're Swiss German you've probably got something that works for you no matter where you are on the political spectrum

Die Weltwoche if you spend your days wetting your pants about the foreigners, the muslamics, the poor and the gays

Neue Zürcher Zeitung if you think the thing with the Nazi gold was just good business sense and your carefully considered solution to every political issues is to cut taxes

Tages-Anzeiger if you are smug "centre-leftist" who appreciates ethnic food and art galleries, hates flag throwing and wrestling, still thinks Switzerland should joing the EU, and think the main problem with the country is the mullet wearing, earringed, uncultured racists in Thuragu who vote SVP

Watson if your main hobbies are night clubs and Tik Tok and you mostly like to read the news the form of lists

20 Minuten if you are mainly interested in reading about Kosovan men killing their wives, Kosovan gangsters stealing cars or Kosovan teenagers beating up their classmates

Blick if you are functionally illiterate

Woz if you are convinved the revolution is just round the corner (just as soon as we convince the people Der Tagi hates that socialism is the true path) and consider Black Lives Matter to be a corporate shill, misogynistic, white supremicist movement

Republik if you want to read a 30'000 word article covering basically the same points that Watson covered in 300 with its "10 reasons why ketchup is better than mustard"

One of the local papers if you are of the opinion that the guys from the next valley over are a bunch of dirty foreigners who should stay on their side of the mountain

Compare to French Switzerland where basically every newspaper follows the same "let's not rock the boat, moderately socially progressive, economically centrist" line. On the basis that there aren't enough French-Swiss for any newspaper trying to be actually "political" to survive.

I’m actually laughing my ass off at the Swiss German part. That sounds just like our media, LOL

[afleitch]

In Scotland if you're a unionist you have; The Sun, The Daily Record, Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, Daily Express, FT, Telegraph, Guardian, Star, Herald, Scotsman, Evening News, Evening Times, Courier, Press and Journal most local press and all their Sunday's

If you're a nationalist you have; The National and Sunday National.

So it's really balanced.

[Tender Branson]

In Austria, the media, journalists and articles/TV news are fair and balanced.

Journalists are from all political coleurs (Black, Red, Green, Blue, Pink and Dark Red) and largely represent the electorate as a whole.

Whereas in Germany, the state ARD and ZDF are perceived to be much more leftist than the electorate or mainstream ...

[CumbrianLefty]

In Scotland if you're a unionist you have; The Sun, The Daily Record, Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, Daily Express, FT, Telegraph, Guardian, Star, Herald, Scotsman, Evening News, Evening Times, Courier, Press and Journal most local press and all their Sunday's

If you're a nationalist you have; The National and Sunday National.

So it's really balanced.

Though most of those "London" titles have minimal circulations in Scotland.

Which does balance it out, a bit.

(oh, and the *Scottish* Sun SUPPORTS THE NATS)

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

In Italy we have to separate TV and newspapers.

On the television front:
Rai is the public television and it is fairly balanced.
Mediaset is property of Silvio Berlusconi so you can guess it has a right leaning.
La7, which basically hosts only talk shows and movies, has a left leaning.
No other television group has a relevant audience as far as politics is concerned.

On the newspaper front:
La Repubblica is for lefties.
Corriere della Sera is your average mainstream "centrist" publication with a vague cosmopolitan flavour that will inevitably end up as slightly left-of-centre.
La Stampa has apparently become left-of-centre.
Avvenire is a Catholic newspaper which means that leftists will call it right-leaning because "muh pro-lifers" and rightists will call it left-leaning because "muh pro illegal aliens".
Il Sole 24 Ore is a financial newspaper which means that leftists will call it right-leaning because "muh finance elites" and rightists will call it left-leaning because "muh finance elites".
Il Resto del Carlino is fairly centre-left.
Il Giornale is mainstream centre-right.
Il Fatto Quotidiano is blatantly pro-M5S and not easily classifiable on Italy's traditional political spectrum but I guess hard-left anti-establishment tankies love it.
La Verità is like Il Giornale but more to the right.
Libero is pretty right-wing and is frankly kind of a joke, whose founder and most recognizable figure is famous for using slurs against Southern Italians and making sexist comments.
There are some other national newspapers that I didn't mention because I don't know how to classify them, but they don't seem to affect the calculation too much.

So I could say that TV kind of tracks with public opinion while newspapers are more to the left than the electorate.