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television. The number of national commercial stations quickly grew to six, drastically
fragmenting the broadcasting landscape that already knew three national public and
dozens of regional and local television channels.The result was not only a growth in the
entertainment and infotainment offered, but also, in absolute terms, an increase of
informative programmes: commercial channels need news shows for reasons of
competition and ‘brand image’, reaching a sizeable or target group audience. The
development from a supply market, in which media producers decide what is relevant,
to a demand market dominated by what the public is interested in, also led to a
fragmentation and loss of audiences, a dramatic effect in a commercialised market
where high ratings are both paramount and rare. This had political consequences too:
to reach the same size audience as in the mid 1980s a politician had to appear in as
many programmes and channels as was physically possible. Finally, competition leads
to forms of ‘pack’ journalism – covering what the others cover, interviewing who the
others interview – as well as a search for scoops and originality – covering what the
other don’t yet have.

The changes in relations between the media and the public are closely linked to and
have their effect on those of politics and media, and the relation between the two.The
de-pillarisation resulted in a strengthening process of individualisation, with a further
declining belief in values inspired by religion or ideology and increasing consumerist
behaviour, also vis-à-vis politics. ‘What’s in it for me?’ became a key question at the
ballot box or when evaluating politics and policies. At the same time, the interest in
party and governmental politics is waning, especially among the young. With the
remote control in their hand, they zap along the more informative programmes and,
more preoccupied by style, image, presentation and taste, they search for pleasure and
the icons of the entertainment world.
The Professionalisation of Political Communication
The media-led and ‘mediatised’ changes in political communication in the Netherlands,
a concentration and commercialisation driven more from a supply to a demand market
in the media, and a growing cynicism in the relationship between media and politics
and between politics and the public, inspired a shift towards a media logic. Different
from the partisan and the public logic, the kind and content of news reporting are in
this logic decided by the frame of reference in which the media make sense of,interpret
and frame issues and people.The media identify less with the public interest and more
with what the public is interested in, that is to say, with what they assume the public
deems important and enjoyable. They set the political agenda and with it, politics
becomes dependent on the functioning, the production routines and the news values
of the media.

In the US-inspired discussion about this media logic, political journalism is said to
profess a more interpretative, framing style of journalism, manifesting itself in a focus
on conflict and scandal, on horse race news and strategic game frames, and in the
centrality of cynical journalists in media reporting, leaving the politician with just
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