Real World is Not Enough The Media as an

Additional Source of Negative Attitudes Toward

Immigration Comparing Denmark and the

Netherlands

Marijn van Klingeren1 Hajo G Boomgaarden2 Rens Vliegenthart1 and

Claes H de Vreese1

1Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) University of Amsterdam The Netherlands and2Department of Methods University of Vienna Austria

Corresponding author Email mvanklingerenuvanl

Submitted August 2013 revised October 2014 accepted October 2014

Abstract

Most people are unable to accurately estimate the number of immigrants in their country

Nonetheless it has been argued that the size of the immigrant population would affect peoplersquos immi-

gration attitudes Part of the effect of immigration on attitudes occurs not so much because of real

immigration figures but rather because of media reporting about immigration In this study negative

attitudes towards immigration are explained by investigating the impact of the salience and the tone

of immigration topics in the news media vis-a-vis the impact of immigration statistics The cases of

Denmark and the Netherlands are analysed for a period from 2003 to 2010 using a multilevel design

Overall real-world immigration numbers have little impact The tone of news coverage has an effect

in the Netherlands a positive tone reduces negativity towards immigration while a negative tone

does not increase negativity We cautiously conclude that the longevity of the issuersquos salience has a

moderating effect

Introduction

In the 1990s many European countries experienced a

large increase in immigration (Boswell 2005) Immi-

grants from Western and non-Western countries entered

Europe in greater numbers than before Arguably as

much recent scholarship has noted such increased immi-

gration created tension between the native population

and the immigrant population and triggered ethnic

prejudice xenophobia hostile attitudes and discrimin-

ation towards immigrants or their religious expressions

(Ceobanu and Escandell 2010 Schluter and Davidov

2013 Helbling 2014) Previous studies have shown that

real-world developments (RWDs) such as the size of the

immigrant population or gross domestic product (GDP)

have a direct impact on negative attitudes towards

immigrants (Quillian 1995 Scheepers et al 2002

Semyonov et al 2006)

Research also shows that the news media can play an

important role in explaining anti-immigration attitudes

(Esser and Brosius 1996 Vergeer et al 2000)

VC The Author 2014 Published by Oxford University Press All rights reserved

For permissions please e-mail journalspermissionsoupcom

European Sociological Review 2015 Vol 31 No 3 268ndash283

doi 101093esrjcu089

Advance Access Publication Date 10 December 2014

Original Article

at Universiteit van A

msterdam

on February 2 2016httpesroxfordjournalsorg

Dow

nloaded from

However the amount of media coverage of immigration

does not accurately represent actual immigrant inflows

(Vliegenthart and Boomgaarden 2007) Furthermore

Sides and Citrin (2007) found a systematic discrepancy

between peoplersquos estimates and the real size of the immi-

grant population they argue that the discrepancy is due

to the visibility of minority groups in the media which

differs from reality Changes in the media environment

(see also Jerit et al 2006)mdasheither alterations in the

attention given to the issue or changes in the general va-

lence of news reportsmdashmay have a substantial impact

on immigration attitudes above and beyond that of

RWDs Because it is unclear how the media play a role

alongside RWDs we propose the following research

question To what extent do the size of the immigrant

population the media visibility and the tone of news re-

ports about immigration affect immigration attitudes

Scholars have established effects of the media on

immigration attitudes and related behaviors in various

European countries (Esser and Brosius 1996 Vergeer

et al 2000 Walgrave and De Swert 2004

Boomgaarden and Vliegenthart 2007 2009 Schemer

2012 Schluter and Davidov 2013) However most of

these studies are based on single case or cross-sectional

data And only occasionally do they include systematic-

ally coded data of the content of the news (for example

see Schemer 2012) This study expands on previous

studies by investigating the presence of the immigration

issue in the media as well as the tone of news reports re-

garding this issue using manually coded content data

Here the inclusion of tone is an important addition

Often the effects caused by the presence of media cover-

age (ie salience or exposure) are attributable to the

negative nature of news messages (Persson and Musher-

Eizenman 2005 Shrum 2009) To date there is limited

empirical evidence for this assumption as tone is often

investigated as an average measure The inclusion of

negative and positive news as separate variables allows

us to study their distinct impact Furthermore the study

contributes by considering the impact of incoming non-

Western immigrants as well as the immigrant population

that resides in a country This allows us to see whether

people feel more threatened by the fact that immigrants

are entering their country or by the fact that more immi-

grants are permanently residing there

We investigate and compare the results from two

northern European countries (the Netherlands and

Denmark) which were selected based on a most similar

system design Comparative research is crucial for the

generalizability of effects and the comparison between

two countries allows for a more in-depth discussion of

the results These two countries are ideal as they are

compatible in many respects but they are different with

regard to one crucial point immigration history

Therefore the salience of the immigration issue also dif-

fers which may play a role in the general influence of

the media and RWDs Because we are interested in the

effects of contextual developments this study covers an

8-year period (from 2003 to 2010) using biannual data

The following sections present the most prominent

theories about the formation of attitudes towards immi-

gration The first three hypotheses largely replicate and

refine the results of previous studies using a slightly dif-

ferent approach It is pertinent to do this as we aim to

clarify ambiguous results found in previous studies

(Manevska and Achterberg 2013 Schluter and

Davidov 2013) The final part of the theory section pro-

poses a contingency effect of different immigration-

related national histories and accordingly expects differ-

ential effects of the media

Real-World Developments

Many studies using the ethnic threat perspective on how

negative attitudes towards immigration take shape have

assessed the effect of national and regional immigration

inflows (Blumer 1958 LeVine and Campbell 1972

Scheepers et al 2002) This approach stems from group

conflict theory (LeVine and Campbell 1972 Austin and

Worchel 1979) and social identity theory (Tajfel and

Turner 1979) The latter states the natural need felt by

people to be part of a larger entity or group Individuals

strongly identify with group characteristics and to

maintain a positive perception of themselves they apply

positive labels to the in-group and negative labels to the

out-group This labelling may appear harmless but can

result in real intergroup conflict The group conflict the-

ory states that the scarcity of goods adds to intergroup

rivalry (LeVine and Campbell 1972 Austin and

Worchel 1979) This competition may revolve around

realistic resources (such as jobs and housing) or sym-

bolic resources (such as cultural identity values or pol-

itical power) (Meuleman and Lubbers 2013 Helbling

2014 Helbling and Kriesi 2014) Intergroup competi-

tion strengthens identification with the in-group (eg

natives) but creates negative associations with out-

groups (eg ethnic minorities) hence competition in-

creases perceived threat from out-groups

Goods become scarcer and perceived threat increases

when the competing groups become larger In relation

to immigrant groups in particular an increasing group

size increases anti-immigration sentiment (Scheepers

et al 2002 Semyonov et al 2006) In this study we

build on previous studies by investigating non-Western

European Sociological Review 2015 Vol 31 No 3 269

at Universiteit van A

msterdam

on February 2 2016httpesroxfordjournalsorg

Dow

nloaded from

immigrants the group that is considered to have the

largest impact (Schluter and Davidov 2013) In add-

ition we distinguish between incoming and residential

non-Western immigrants to see whether incoming im-

migrants or immigrants who take active part of society

cause feelings of threat Based on the literature how-

ever we expect the results to point in the same direction

and therefore we propose a single hypothesis

H1 An increasing non-Western immigrant population

leads to more negative immigration attitudes

Media Effects

Media Visibility

Mass media provide central information for peoplersquos

perceptions of others (Schluter and Davidov 2013) and

therefore the media are able to shape anti-minority

attitudes (Allport 1954 Blumler 1958) We assume

that the media have an influence above and beyond the

influence of RWDs after all media content appears to

show little overlap with RWDs (eg Vliegenthart and

Boomgaarden 2007 for the economic realm Goidel

and Langley 1995 Smith 1988) because of the noise

introduced by journalistic selection processes

(Shoemaker and Reese 1996) and the fact that immi-

gration inflows alone are not always newsworthy

However this mediated version of reality forms the

foundation of a nationrsquos collective knowledge Even

those who are not (frequently) exposed to news reports

are often made aware of media reality via interpersonal

conversations (Schmitt-Beck 2003 Boomgaarden and

Vliegenthart 2009) Arguably most people have a

media-based impression of immigrants and immigration

which has the potential to shape their attitudes

Previous literature has investigated such media influ-

ences Boomgaarden and Vliegenthart (2009) for ex-

ample investigated the effects of news coverage about

immigration in Germany They found that frequency

and tone of coverage affected anti-immigration atti-

tudes Vergeer et al (2000) established that exposure

to certain Dutch newspapers (ie those characterized

by negative reporting on immigrants) significantly

increased ethnic threat perceptions Schluter and

Davidov (2013) scrutinized the role of negative immi-

gration-related news reports on perceived ethnic threat

in Spain and found that these news reports affect

perceived group threat above and beyond the effect of

immigrant group size Schemer (2012) found that expos-

ure to positive news reduces negative out-group atti-

tudes among those who are less knowledgeable about

immigrants Media presence and tone thus play a vital

role in how the public perceives ethnic minorities

dependent and independent of individual media use or

background characteristics

In line with Boomgaarden and Vliegenthart (2009)

we propose that frequent exposure to out-groups in the

media acts as a reminder about peoplersquos own identities

and their distinct differences from certain out-groups

(Tajfel and Turner 1979) In accordance with conflict

and social identity theory this reminder triggers feelings

of competition Therefore increased presence of immi-

grants in the media increases the odds of encountering

immigrants via media which can initiate the perception

of increased threat and negative out-group associations

(LeVine and Campbell 1972 Austin and Worchel

1979 Ward et al 2001)

H2 Increased visibility of the immigration issue in the

news increases negative immigration attitudes

Tone of Media Messages

Previous studies have often applied an implicit lsquoany

news is bad newsrsquo reasoning (ie an increase in media

salience coincides with an increase in negative messages

regarding immigration) Accordingly an increase in

media salience would provide more negative informa-

tion about minority groups which then would readily

attract the attention of the majority and increase nega-

tive immigration attitudes (Persson and Musher-

Eizenman 2005 Shrum 2009) However an increase in

media salience does not necessarily co-occur with an in-

crease in negative messages and so the found effects

might simply be due to an increase in media attention ra-

ther than tone It is therefore crucial to understand and

distinguish between the effects of media salience and

tone Furthermore Sorokarsquos asymmetrical influences

thesis (2006) states that people are generally more re-

sponsive to negative than to positive information Thus

it is likely that negative news will have a larger effect

than positive news even when there is no substantial

increase in negative news Therefore we distinguish be-

tween positive and negative message tone and investi-

gate whether and to what extent negative or positive

media coverage affects immigration attitudes

Previous research found that negative media environ-

ments produce negative immigrant stereotyping (Gilliam

and Iyengar 2000 Domke 2001 Schemer 2012)

negative evaluations of immigrants negative immigra-

tion attitudes and ethnic prejudice (Power et al 1996

Dixon and Azocar 2007 Boomgaarden and Vliegen-

thart 2009) Peoplersquos political preferences are often

270 European Sociological Review 2015 Vol 31 No 3

at Universiteit van A

msterdam

on February 2 2016httpesroxfordjournalsorg

Dow

nloaded from

guided by information from the news media (Sniderman

and Theriault 2004) Although these studies all show

that tone has an impact they fall short in distinguishing

between the impact of negative versus positive media

messages which we are able to do in this study

How might the tone of the media affect opinions

Zaller (1992) describes this process as follows people

receive information from the news and decide whether

to accept this information When formulating an opin-

ion people sample from this accepted information This

receive-accept-sample model (RAS) shows how people

make use of the news Previous research has shown that

this is a dynamic process and that each individual collec-

tion of accepted information changes over time in line

with the developments in the news (Schwenk 1988) We

argue that the dominant tone in the news affects the gen-

eral sample of peoplersquos accepted information because re-

cent information is the easiest to access cognitively

(Higgins 1989) Hence the flow of immigration news

coverage when heavily one-sided (ie predominantly

negative or positive) can change public opinion at large

(Zaller 1992 1996) A person that is confronted with

both a positive and a negative message on the same issue

will however not be affected by either of the two mes-

sages as the two messages cancel each other out (De

Vreese and Boomgaarden 2006) However in a pre-

dominantly negative media environment the likelihood

that people are confronted with negative messages in-

creases therefore the information they sample from be-

comes more negative and immigration attitudes will

become more negative as well The same logic applies to

a positive bias but we expect this to reduce anti-immi-

gration sentiment

H3a Negative news reports increase anti-immigration

attitudes whereas (H3b) positive news reports reduce

anti-immigration attitudes

Conditionality of Country Characteristics

Most Similar Systems Design

The countries were selected using a most-similar-systems

design (MSSD) The use of an MSSD is lsquobased on the

premise that systems as identical as possible with regard

to as many constitutive features as possible represent the

optimal samples for comparative researchrsquo (Przeworski

and Teune 1970 p 32) The idea behind this compara-

tive method is that by selecting similar cases most of the

contextual characteristics that might be of influence

otherwise are held constant Hence only those charac-

teristics on which the selected cases differ may generate

an effect This considerably reduces the number of op-

erative variables which is ideal when one deals with a

lsquosmall Nrsquo which is often the case in country comparative

research (Lijphart 1971) The MSSD allows us to rule

out potential country-specific confounding factors

related to politics economics and media For this study

it is crucial to consider countries that are similar in terms

of political system (mature democracies multiparty sys-

tems) economic situation (welfare status in the OECD

GDP top 20) media systems and media news outlets [a

combination of public and private television broad-

casters and a democratic corporatist model (Hallin and

Mancini 2004)] Additionally the countries should be

compatible with regard to the ethnic religious and cul-

tural background of the immigrant population1 (SCP

2009 Jensen et al 2010 Berkhout and Sudulich

2011) We decided to compare the Netherlands and

Denmark because these countries fulfil these

requirements

Despite the clear similarities there is one important

difference Though both countries have dealt with immi-

gration since the 1970s and early 1980s the immigrant

population grew faster and larger in the Netherlands

(Jensen et al 2010 Berkhout and Sudulich 2011) For

decades immigration has played a crucial role in Dutch

politics public debates and the news media Attention

increased briefly after the assassinations of right-wing

politician Pim Fortuyn (in 2002) and filmmaker Theo

van Gogh (in 2004) (Vliegenthart and Roggeband

2007) Immigration has been a politicized issue in the

Netherlands since the early 1990s (ie a multicultural

society) the issue became politicized in Denmark in the

late 1990s only (ie with the founding of the Danish

Peoplersquos party in 1995) Hence the immigration topic

has been prominent for a longer period of time in the

Dutch context than in the Danish context Ceteris pari-

bus we tentatively propose that these country differ-

ences have led to different effects of the media and

RWDs even in the 2000s In the section below we elab-

orate how

Divergent Country Effects

Neuman (1990) stated that the public is especially

attuned to some issues while others receive lsquono more

than a collective yawnrsquo (p 162) An explanation for the

difference in public attention paid to issues is provided

by the classical theory of public response function by

Downs (1972) which describes a five-stage issue re-

sponse function (issue-attention-cycle) The pre-problem

stage a problem exists but has not been given any public

attention (yet) the discovery stage public attention to

European Sociological Review 2015 Vol 31 No 3 271

at Universiteit van A

msterdam

on February 2 2016httpesroxfordjournalsorg

Dow

nloaded from

the issue is catalysed after the issue has passed the atten-

tion threshold the plateau stage enthusiasm for the

issue wanes and public attention stabilizes the decline

stage an inattentive phase in which the public is frus-

trated by the notion that the problem has no simple so-

lution and the post-problem stage the issue is old and

uninteresting and receives little attention

Arguably the stage of an issue is crucial to the

amount of received attention (eg media politics and

public opinion) and the willingness of the public to pay

attention to the issue to gain information and to

(re)formulate an opinion (Behr and Iyengar 1985

Neuman 1990) We argue that this issue stage may

moderate the effects of RWDs and the media and that a

higher level of public attention for an issue tightens the

relationship between RWDs media and public opinion

which causes the effects to be bigger By doing so we

are among the first to bring together media effects con-

ditioned by issue attention cycles

The question then is at what stage the two countries

in this study are located Reyes (2010) argues that in

America immigration is one of the lsquotop five recycled

issuesrsquo the issue is always present but it regains its im-

portance around election campaigns We think the situ-

ation in the two European countries is not too different

The issue remained important in both countries over the

entire period but gained attention around certain im-

portant events Because we cover a time span of several

years it is likely that the issue has passed through sev-

eral stages of the issue-attention cycle repeatedly

To make a better estimate of the stage of the immi-

gration issue in each of the two countries we consult

our data on overall media and public attention (see first

part of the results section)2 Here we see that Denmark

shows two large peaks in media and public opinion

whereas the Netherlands shows limited fluctuations in

media and public attention Based on the immigration

history of both countries described in the previous

section (Jensen et al 2010 Berkhout and Sudulich

2011 also see footnote 1) and the descriptive data

we cautiously propose that the Netherlands has been

in the plateau and decline stage more than it has

been in the discovery stage in the early to late 2000s

whereas Denmark has spent relatively more time in the

discovery stage over the period of observation

Therefore we expect the influence of media and RWDs

on the public to be stronger in Denmark than in the

Netherlands

H4 RWDs and the media have a larger influence on

anti-immigration sentiment in Denmark than in the

Netherlands

Data and Method

The data were collected between 2003 and 2010 in

Denmark and between 2003 and 2009 in the

Netherlands We selected this period due to its stability

with regard to immigration policies presence of immi-

gration parties (Bommes and Sciortino 2011 Broch-

mann et al 2012) and economic prosperity3 By doing

so these structural developments do not impact our re-

sults We draw on three types of longitudinal data real

world data which were collected from the Eurostat

website media data including the total number of art-

icles about immigration and a random selection of news-

paper articles about immigration that were manually

coded by a group of trained coders (native speakers)4

and survey data for which several waves of the Euro-

barometer were used (ie from wave 591 to wave

742)

To analyse these longitudinal data we use a multile-

vel model with individuals nested within biyearly

periods (16 in Denmark and 14 in the Netherlands)

Because the dependent variable is dichotomous a logis-

tic version of this modelling technique5 is applied The

intra-class correlations (ICC)6 (012 in the Netherlands

and 016 in Denmark) indicate that attitudes (Level 1)

are correlated within each 6-month period (Level 2)

This means that country-level characteristics are rele-

vant and that a multilevel approach is required

Dependent Variable

The dependent variable stems from the Eurobarometer

which required the respondent to select the problem

they find most important from a list of 12 political issues

ranging from international economic competition

crime and unemployment to immigration7 (see

Supplementary Table A1 for the descriptive statistics

for this variable in each country)8 As Boomgaarden and

Vliegenthart (2009) argue lsquoThe most important prob-

lem (MIP) question provides an utilizable proxy measure

for anti-immigration attitudes By asking about the most

important problem the question prescribes a negative

evaluative component If people consider immigration

the prime problem the nation is facing it is reasonable

to interpret this immigration problem perception as a

measure of anti-immigration attitudesrsquo (p 522) The au-

thors elaborate on their statement by comparing the

MIP responses to the responses to more explicit anti-im-

migration sentiment measures We ran similar checks on

our data by comparing the results of the MIP question

to immigrant attitude questions that were asked in

one of the waves of the Eurobarometer Our results

confirmed the assumption by Boomgaarden and

272 European Sociological Review 2015 Vol 31 No 3

at Universiteit van A

msterdam

on February 2 2016httpesroxfordjournalsorg

Dow

nloaded from

Vliegenthart and indicate that this MIP question meas-

ures attitudes towards the issue (Wlezien 2005)9

Media Variables

The current study uses coded newspaper articles to rep-

resent the news media environment To capture a wide

news spectrum newspapers with a wide range of polit-

ical views were selected De Telegraaf and De

Volkskrant in the Netherlands and Jyllands Posten and

Politiken in Denmark De Telegraaf is the only tabloid-

like newspaper in the Netherlands and one of the oldest

and largest Dutch dailies to date It is known for its rela-

tively right-wing perspective De Volkskrant is a large

central-leftist newspaper it is also one of the largest

newspapers in the Netherlands and has been in existence

since the early 1900s Jyllands Posten one of the largest

newspapers in Denmark became internationally infam-

ous for its portrait of Mohammed in 2005 It is a liberal

central-right broadsheet newspaper One of its main

competitors is Politiken the leading Danish newspaper

which was originally connected to the Danish Social

Liberal Party but declared its independence in the

1970s

The search terms10 used to collect the data from

these newspapers on immigration and closely related

topics were created in Dutch and translated into

Danish A sample of monthly articles per country11 was

randomly selected from the collected data and manually

coded by nine native speakers Media salience is defined

as the percentage of change compared with the previous

6-month period for each country the total number of

newspaper articles about immigration are used to create

this variable (see Figure 1 for absolute frequencies and

Supplementary Table A1 in Appendix 4 for descriptive

statistics)

To code tone we organized intensive coding sessions

Coders were instructed to read English language mater-

ial which enabled us to check the inter-coder reliability

for all of the coders at once To code tone coders read

the articles and answered the following question lsquoHow

would you say the main topic is discussedrsquo The re-

sponses were lsquoin a negative wayrsquo lsquoin a balanced wayrsquo

lsquoin a positive wayrsquo or lsquoin a neutral wayrsquo For instance if

an article talked about immigrants in a derogatory man-

ner saying that their level of integration is too low this

would clearly be negative from an immigrantrsquos point of

view However if an article discussed the issue for in-

stance in terms of stimulating employment for immi-

grants the tone would be positive from this perspective

Eventually all the coders were asked to code English

newspaper articles and once the inter-coder reliability

of this English material was up to standard the coders

were given the coding material in their native language

(ie Dutch and Danish) The percent agreement was 63

per cent among the five Dutch coders and 65 per cent

among the four Danish coders These reliability scores

are reasonable but not perfect therefore the results of

the tone analysis are interpreted with caution

As we are interested in the difference between the ef-

fects of positive and negative news we defined two tone

variables These were created by calculating the

28943175

3779 3933 38184012 4144

4640

3820 3813 3828

31852864

3253 3225

3684

46424445 4550

7261

6791

5717 5670

66176356

8024

7334

6633

5136

4082

3577

2500

3500

4500

5500

6500

7500

8500

The Netherlands

Denmark

Figure 1 Salience in news media in the two countries across time (absolute number of articles on immigration)

European Sociological Review 2015 Vol 31 No 3 273

at Universiteit van A

msterdam

on February 2 2016httpesroxfordjournalsorg

Dow

nloaded from

percentage of negative and positive messages out of

the total number of coded news messages during the

6-month period

Real-World Developments

From Eurostat12 we obtained the immigrant population

size and inflow figures the first includes the number of

non-Western immigrants residing in each country per

year and the second captures the long-term immigrants

who move into the country each year13 From these

data two variables were created by estimating the num-

ber of non-Western immigrants14 relative to the entire

population of the country (ie in line with Semyonov

et al 2006 and Schluter and Davidov 2013 and non-

Western countries are defined as those in Africa Asia

Eastern Europe or Latin America) and the percent

change compared with the previous year The two vari-

ables enable us to compare the results with previous

studies that have used similar measures but rarely to-

gether and to find out how their change over time af-

fects anti-immigration sentiment

Meanwhile in each model we control for potentially

influential key events that were not only prominent na-

tionally but also spilled over into international broad-

casting and public debate These key events were

identified from the extant literature (Sides and Citrin

2007 Vliegenthart and Boomgaarden 2007) and veri-

fied in interviews with country experts These include

the London bombing (July 2005) and the Madrid bomb-

ing (March 2004) the Van Gogh homicide in the

Netherlands (November 2004) and the Mohammed

cartoon in Denmark (September 2005) However be-

cause the country-specific events will have had a bigger

impact in the given country than in others key events

were considered a country-specific dichotomous variable

(key events 0frac14 no event 1frac14 event)

Control Variables

In the models we controlled for a variety of individual

characteristics gender because women are generally

more tolerant than men (Kuran and McCaffery 2008)

age because younger people are generally more tolerant

than the elderly (Firebaugh and Davis 1988 Quillian

1995) and education15 because educated people are

generally more accepting (Hainmueller and Hiscox

2007) Hainmueller and Hiscox argue that education

not labour market competition affects xenophobic feel-

ings Our exploratory analyses show similar results

therefore we only include education16 Finally left-right

identification (1frac14 left-wing to 10frac14 right-wing) is

included because the immigration issue is crudely

divided along this dimension as people who are more

right-wing are generally more negative about immigra-

tion (Money 1999)

Results

Country Differences

The developments with regard to immigration in the

two countries are briefly described on the basis of our

data Subsequently we continue with the results of the

analyses

Figure 1 shows the absolute number of articles about

immigration in both countries Note that the total num-

ber of articles in each newspaper may differ Hence we

can only look at the differences in fluctuations across

time In Denmark media salience reaches a high peak

but it also fluctuates substantially The presence of the

immigration issue in the Netherlands shows no large

peaks or dips Figure 2 shows the percentages of nega-

tive and positive immigration news reports Negative re-

ports trump positive reports in the Netherlands but the

tone is more moderate The percentage of negative news

reports remains well under 50 per cent until the second

half of 2009 In the first half of 2009 there is an obvious

peak in positive news coverage

Negative news dominates the Danish media land-

scape but there are many fluctuations there is a positive

news peak in 2007 (491 per cent) and a negative

peak in 2008 (50 per cent) The former peak might

have been a counter-reaction to the period of negative

news following the Mohammed cartoon in 2005 The

latter occurred immediately after the Danish Peoplersquos

Party had won the elections Figure 3 presents the per-

centage of people indicating that immigration is the MIP

in their country The Netherlands shows a peak in the

first half of 2004 (155 per cent) and another peak in

the first half of 2008 (169 per cent) Denmark showed

the highest peak in the second half of 2005 (303 per

cent) after 2006 immigration as the MIP steadily

declined from 227 per cent in 2007 to 65 per cent in

2010

It is likely that media characteristics have an effect

above and beyond RWDs on anti-immigration sentiment

because media do not necessarily follow RWDs

Figure 4 shows that this assumption is largely correct In

both countries there is no strong positive correlation be-

tween immigrant inflows and media attention towards

the issue

In the Netherlands however there is a negative cor-

relation between RWDs and media salience17 A decline

in one variable coincides with an increase in the other

274 European Sociological Review 2015 Vol 31 No 3

at Universiteit van A

msterdam

on February 2 2016httpesroxfordjournalsorg

Dow

nloaded from

which may cause suppression effects in the overall

model Because the correlation is not very high we do

not foresee that this negative correlation will have a

large impact but it is something that needs to be

investigated

Table 1 shows the results (log odds) of the logistic

multilevel analyses in each country The limited number

of periods per country calls for parsimonious modelling

Therefore a stepwise approach is applied (see super-

script a b and c in Table 1)18

Figure 2 Tone in news media in the two countries across time22 in percentage of articles out of the total number of articles about

immigration in a 6-month period)

Figure 3 Percentage of people that indicates immigration as the MIP in their country 2003ndash2010

European Sociological Review 2015 Vol 31 No 3 275

at Universiteit van A

msterdam

on February 2 2016httpesroxfordjournalsorg

Dow

nloaded from

The first hypothesis states that increased immigration

leads to more negative immigration attitudes This hy-

pothesis was tested on the immigrant residents (see

Models 11 and 21) and the immigration inflow vari-

able (see the results in Models 12 and 22) The results

using the first variable were insignificant in both coun-

tries ie not supporting the hypothesis With regard to

the second immigration variable the results show that

the odds of developing anti-immigration attitudes in-

crease significantly with increased immigration inflows

in the Netherlands (logitfrac14 002 Pfrac14 000) Thus when

the immigrant inflow increases 1 per cent compared

with the previous period the odds of considering immi-

gration a problem increase 202 per cent The effect in

Model 23 in Denmark shows similar but insignificant

results (logitfrac14 001 Pfrac14027) This means that there is

limited support for the first hypothesis

Second we expected the increased media visibility of

immigration to significantly increase anti-immigration

attitudes (H2) This media effect is significant in

Denmark (see Model 23 logitfrac14 0011 Pfrac14 002) when

we do not control for immigration inflows However if

we add this variable the overall effect in Denmark be-

comes insignificant (logitfrac14 001 Pfrac14007) which

means Hypothesis 2 is not confirmed in Denmark

In the Netherlands the effect in Model 13 shows no

support for the hypothesis however when controlling

for immigrant inflows the effect of media salience

becomes significant (logitfrac14022 Pfrac14000)19 Thus be-

cause immigrant inflows decrease at the same time that

media salience increases (negative correlation) the effect

of media salience is suppressed by immigrant inflows

Media salience does increase anti-immigration attitudes

in the Netherlands but this effect is invisible because im-

migration inflows reduce anti-immigrant attitudes at the

same time Adding immigrant inflows to the model with

media salience significantly improves the model fit20

These findings lend support for the media salience hy-

pothesis (H2) but only in the Netherlands

Furthermore we expected negative reports on immi-

gration to increase anti-immigration attitudes (H3a) and

positive news to decrease them (H3b) The effect of

negative news in the Netherlands is insignificant and

only borders on significance when immigrant inflows

are controlled for (logitfrac140013 Pfrac14 0054) This find-

ing however should not be given too much weight

given the effect size and the reliability scores Positive

news (see Models 14 and 24 in Table 1) however

clearly reduces anti-immigration attitudes in the

Netherlands (logitfrac14004 Pfrac14000) but not in

Denmark (logitfrac14001 Pfrac14 013) Thus H3a is not sup-

ported by the results and H3b is supported by the

results in the Netherlands The fact that negative news

has no effect counters Sorokarsquos (2006) findings that pre-

dominantly negative media coverage negatively affects

attitudes a point we will return to in the discussion

The model fits are presented in the bottom row We

can see here that the models significantly improve with

the additional control variable (key events) but that

each of the variables of interest does not lead to a signifi-

cantly improved model fit In the Netherlands we do see

that immigrant inflows and positive news lead to a sub-

stantial reduction of the unexplained second-level vari-

ance (u0j) but the addition of negative news does not

improve the model fit (see Models 16 and 26)

Our findings show that RWDs and media have dif-

ferent impacts depending on the country of observation

Based on the issue-attention cycle we expected to find

the biggest influences in Denmark (H4) but the opposite

effect emerged The Danish are affected less by these

Figure 4 Correlation between immigration inflows and media salience

276 European Sociological Review 2015 Vol 31 No 3

at Universiteit van A

msterdam

on February 2 2016httpesroxfordjournalsorg

Dow

nloaded from

Tab

le1L

og

isti

cm

ult

ile

ve

lm

od

els

re

alw

orl

dfa

cto

rsa

nd

me

dia

infl

ue

nce

so

na

nti

-im

mig

rati

on

att

itu

de

s

The

Net

her

lands

Base

line

Model

1M

odel

11

Model

12

Model

13

Model

14

Model

15

Model

16

Inte

rcep

t

23

3(0

33)

25

2(0

21)

38

1(3

44)

23

3(0

20)

25

2(0

21)

13

6(0

39)

29

7(0

49)

16

8(0

74)

Key

even

ts

01

8(0

28)

01

6(0

28)

00

1(0

21)

02

0(0

27)

05

0(0

22)

02

0(0

27)

05

2(0

22)

Imm

igra

nt

popula

tion

01

2(0

33)

Imm

igra

nt

inflow

sa00

2(0

00)

Med

iasa

lien

ceb

00

1(0

01)

Posi

tive

new

sa

00

4(0

01)

00

4(0

01)

Neg

ati

ve

new

s00

1(0

01)

00

1(0

01)

u0j

04

404

14

102

94

02

94

002

9

e 0j

07

700

00

00

00

00

00

000

0

2lo

glikel

ihood

91

886

890

597

90

598

90

509

90

591

90

511

90

590

90

508

Den

mark

Base

line

Model

2M

odel

21

Model

22

Model

23

Model

24

Model

25

Model

26

Inte

rcep

t

16

4(0

25)

24

1(0

47)

11

5(1

16)

24

1(0

47)

24

2(0

47)

29

2(0

71)

24

3(0

74)

32

2(1

03)

Key

even

ts06

3(0

37)

04

7(0

38)

06

4(0

36)

07

1(0

34)

07

5(0

38)

06

2(0

38)

07

2(0

38)

Imm

igra

nt

popula

tion

02

4(0

22)

Imm

igra

nt

inflow

sa00

1(0

01)

Med

iasa

lien

cea

00

11

(00

06)

Posi

tive

new

s00

1(0

02)

00

2(0

02)

Neg

ati

ve

new

s00

0(0

01)

00

1(0

02)

u0j

06

105

405

205

404

805

205

405

2

e 0j

08

003

503

603

503

803

803

503

9

2lo

glikel

ihood

142

992

139

519

139

507

139

515

139

481

139

507

139

450

139

505

Note

sE

ach

model

show

sth

elo

godds

firs

tand

the

stan

dar

der

ror

bet

wee

npare

nth

eses

ea

chm

odel

als

oin

cludes

age

educa

tiongen

der

and

left

right

posi

tionw

hic

hsh

ow

edth

eex

pec

ted

resu

lts

signifi

cant

one-

tail

edre

sult

s

A

lphalt

01

0alp

halt

00

5alp

halt

00

1T

he

Net

her

lands

n1132

36n

214D

enm

ark

n

1151

23n

216

aT

his

resu

ltre

main

ssi

gnifi

cant

(Plt

00

5)

wit

hth

ein

clusi

on

of

med

iasa

lien

ceand

tone

vari

able

sbT

his

resu

ltbec

om

essi

gnifi

cant

(Plt

00

5)

wit

hth

ein

clusi

on

of

imm

igra

nt

inflow

s

European Sociological Review 2015 Vol 31 No 3 277

at Universiteit van A

msterdam

on February 2 2016httpesroxfordjournalsorg

Dow

nloaded from

factors than the Dutch although some of the effects in

the Netherlands are suppressed by RWDs

To determine whether the effects differ significantly

between the Netherlands and Denmark interaction

models were created in a pooled logistic regression

model with country dummies21 The results in Table 2

show that there are significant differences in the impact

of RWDs Although the effects of immigrant population

are insignificant in both countries a significant differ-

ence was found in Model 1 because of the negative effect

in Denmark and the positive effect in the Netherlands

(logitfrac14089 Pfrac14 000) Immigrant inflows (see Model

2) are significant in the Netherlands and differ signifi-

cantly from the effects in Denmark (logitfrac14002

Pfrac14000) There is also a significant difference in the

effect of media salience (logitfrac14001 Pfrac14 000)

which indicates that the effect of media salience is

slightly but significantly smaller in Denmark than in the

Netherlands The effect of positive news in the

Netherlands differs slightly but significantly from the

effect in Denmark (logitfrac14 002 Pfrac14 0009) but we found

no systematic difference with respect to negative news

(logitfrac14 000 Pfrac14041) Overall the results do not com-

ply with the fourth hypothesis the results are significantly

more pronounced in the Netherlands than in Denmark

Discussion

Scholars have frequently demonstrated the influence of

context on peoplersquos attitudes towards immigrants

(Scheepers et al 2002 Semyonov et al 2006

Boomgaaden and Vliegenthart 2009 Schluter and

Davidov 2013) The aim was to replicate and refine

some of these findings as well as to investigate the influ-

ence of media salience and tone This study provides

new insights regarding the generalizability of the effects

the effects of change rather than the mere presence of an

immigrant population and the effects of the media over

time using a comparative perspective The main goal of

this study was to tackle the following research question

To what extent do the size of the immigrant population

the media visibility and the tone of news reports about

immigration affect immigration attitudes Below each

element of this question is discussed

Based on realistic group conflict theory (LeVine and

Campbell 1972 Austin and Worchel 1979) and social

identity theory (Tajfel and Turner 1979) we hypothe-

sized that immigration causes feelings of competition

and threat and increases anti-immigration attitudes

(Scheepers et al 2002 Semyonov et al 2006) The

findings support this assumption for the Netherlands

with regard to the relative immigrant inflows This indi-

cates that incoming immigrants have a bigger impact

than the relative number of residential immigrants in

this country In Denmark no support for this hypothesis

was found in contrast to the findings of Schluter and

Davidov (2013) but in line with the study by Manevska

and Achterberg (2013) who found a very limited influ-

ence of actual immigration on immigration attitudes

One reason for this seeming paradox might be found on

Table 2 Pooled logistic regression models of RWDs and media on anti-immigration attitudes in Denmark and the

Netherlands

Predictors Baseline Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model 5

Intercept 163 (002) 1155 (126) 338 (000) 310 (013) 318 (019) 085 (019)

Country(nlfrac14 ref) 972 (152) 084 (006) 070 (004) 116 (021) 063 (021)

Immigrant population (1) 086 (013)

Immigrant inflows (2) 0006 (000)

Media salience (3) 0001 (000)

Positive news (4) 001 (0005)

Negative news (5) 000 (000)

Country 1 089 (017)

Country 2 0019 (000)

Country 3 001 (000)

Country 4 0015 (0007)

Country 5 000 (001)

Pseudo R2 000 005 005 005 005 005

2 loglikelihood 231773 219832 219725 220294 220387 220433

Notes Each model shows the log odds first and the standard error between parentheses each model also includes period dummies age education gender and left

right position and key events

Alphalt010 alphalt005 alphalt001

The Netherlands n1 13236 Denmark n1 15123

278 European Sociological Review 2015 Vol 31 No 3

at Universiteit van A

msterdam

on February 2 2016httpesroxfordjournalsorg

Dow

nloaded from

the contextual level of analysis Immigrants mostly settle

in bigger cities and urban areas Natives who live in

these areas will notice change and be affected more than

those in rural areas However in big cities people are

also more likely to come into contact with people from

different ethnic backgrounds which can reduce ethnic

prejudice according to Allportrsquos (1954) contact theory

We expected media salience to increase anti-immi-

gration sentiment this indeed was the case in the

Netherlands We found that immigrant inflows suppress

the effect of media salience Both variables produced the

same result however because a decrease in media sali-

ence often coincided with an increase in immigrant in-

flows the effect of media salience was not visible until

immigrant inflows were added to the model This means

that the presence of immigration in the media in the

Netherlands had an impact

Hence this supports the idea that a greater assort-

ment of received messages with a particular tone

through the acceptance of these toned messages leads to

a change in the sample that affects peoplersquos attitudes

(RAS model Zaller 1992) Tone had an effect on the

public discourse in the Netherlands such that a positive

tone in news reports reduced anti-immigration attitudes

(also see Boomgaarden 2007) Surprisingly the effect of

negative news was not significant Thismdashand the fact

that negative news did not mediate the effect of media

saliencemdashcounters the lsquoany news is bad newsrsquo notion

which is frequently used to explain the effect of news sa-

lience on anti-immigration attitudes when it is not pos-

sible to assess the tone of news It also counters Sorokarsquos

asymmetrical influences thesis that people are generally

more responsive to negative information than to positive

information This is possibly due to the fact that immi-

gration is predominantly discussed in negative terms

hence people have gotten so used to negative messages

that any divergence is more noticeable and has a bigger

impact

The limited influence of media variables in Denmark

does not mean that there is no effect of media at all One

might find more fluctuations at the individual level that

do not appear when averaged at the country level

(Zaller 1996) To further explore this an experimental

design panel study or another method that relies on in-

dividual level media exposure measures would be more

appropriate

So why did we find differences between the two

countries First of all our findings are not in line with

Downrsquos issue-attention cycle Whether this is due to the

selection of specific cases the inaccuracy of the theory

or inaccurate categorization on our part is not clear

However we do know that the Netherlands has a more

rapidly growing immigrant population and a longer pol-

itical immigration history Thus Dutch citizens have

had more of an opportunity to become familiar with the

issue through politics media and personal experiences

Arguably the relatively steady presence of this issue in

the news has paved the way for news content to have an

effect (ie tone) When the public pays no attention to

an issue or related developments contextual characteris-

tics cannot have an effect because there is no critical

mass that pays attention to the issue (Neuman 1990)

There appears to be a critical mass in the Netherlands

that is influenced by the tone in the news In Denmark

however although the media give plenty of attention to

the issue there are no signs in our study of a critical mass

being affected by news content The fluctuations in media

salience over time were large these patterns appeared to

have attracted peoplersquos attention and influenced their atti-

tudes rather than the tone of the messages Although the

correlation between immigration inflows and media sali-

ence was not very large it was large enough to mediate

most of the effect of media salience

There are some limitations to this study to which we

would like to pay specific attention First one limitation

of this study that is evident from the sometimes limited

predictive power of the presented models is that due to

insufficient data some important explanatory variables

could not be included For example perceived ethnic

threat as well as cultural values or intergroup friend-

ships are not included as mediators or moderators

though they have been found to play a crucial role with

regard to immigration attitudes and should be taken

into consideration when possible (Hooghe et al 2013

Manevska and Achterberg 2013)

Second one downside to the otherwise innovative

longitudinal design is the limited availability of longitu-

dinal dependent variables The Eurobarometer provided

the only immigration attitude question that recurred fre-

quently over the period of interest The lsquomost-important

problemrsquo question does not differentiate between ethnic

groups It is a tricky question to use because the answer

depends on the prominence of other issues on the

agenda However this makes the tests of the hypotheses

more stringent because it reduces the chances of

finding effects of RWDs Nevertheless it is not

ideal Furthermore though the variable was proven to

be a good proxy of immigration attitude it still is a

proxy Because of the bipolar nature of the variablemdash

measuring both importance as well as attitudesmdashit is

necessary to be cautious when drawing conclusions

while using this variable Mainly because a part of the

people who indicate that immigration is their countryrsquos

biggest problem sympathizes with immigrant minorities

European Sociological Review 2015 Vol 31 No 3 279

at Universiteit van A

msterdam

on February 2 2016httpesroxfordjournalsorg

Dow

nloaded from

However this also means that the results of this study

are likely to be an underestimation of the real effect

We were able to include two quality newspapers in

Denmark while we also included a tabloid-like news-

paper in the Netherlands Because tabloids are on aver-

age slightly more negative about immigration there was

a chance of overestimating the effects of positive news in

Denmark as we had not included such a newspaper

here In this study however such overestimation is un-

likely as there was no effect of positive news in

Denmark whatsoever Finally some authors argue that

the causal mechanism is reversed and media are influ-

enced by public opinion So far no attention was given

to this idea but it is possible that media pick up on pub-

lic tendencies while the media influence the public cre-

ating a spiral mechanism This is an important

perspective that should be given consideration in future

research

It would be inappropriate to draw firm conclusions

from just two cases hence these conclusions are largely

tentative and intended as a basis for future research

Even so this study shows interesting effects In

Denmark media salience was the only contextual effect

that approached significance whereas immigrant in-

flows and most media characteristics had an influence in

the Netherlands The fact that we found such influences

in the Netherlands is intriguing Here the immigration

topic is established therefore we expected people to

have largely stable opinions (see Saltier and Woelfel

1975) or be bored with the issue (Downs 1972) but our

findings show evidence to the contrary From these re-

sults we can tentatively deduce that it takes time before

people turn into a critical mass get informed and before

their attitudes regarding immigration can be affected by

contextual changes in the media and in the real world

Notes1 The Netherlands Between 1972 and 2010 non-

Western immigration grew from 200000 to 19

million (SCP 2012) with the largest proportion

from Turkey Morocco and Suriname (Berkhout

and Sudulich 2011) Denmark a small group of

guest workers from Turkey Pakistan and

Yugoslavia entered in the 1960s (Jensen et al

2010) In the 1980s and 1990s refugees arrived

mostly from Sri Lanka the Middle East Bosnia

Afghanistan Somalia and Iraq In 2010 the immi-

grant population was 98 per cent

2 These are the figures on which RWD and media

visibility variables are based they are merely used

for indicative purposes here

3 The effect of economy was addressed by including

unemployment figures and GDP in the models

Neither had a significant effect on the dependent

variable

4 The newspaper data were collected through online

databases Lexis Nexis (the Netherlands) and

Infomedia (Denmark)

5 For this we used the xtmelogit command in Stata

12

6 The ICC for logistic models is defined as qfrac14r2u

(r2uthorn r2e) where r2efrac14p23 and r2u is the vari-

ance of the random intercept of an unconditional

logistic multilevel model logit(pij)frac14 c00thornu0j

where u0j N(0 r2u) (Guo and Zhao 2000)

7 Consult the Eurobarometer website for the full

range of topics The analysis only includes those

who were born and whose parents were born in

the Netherlands or Denmark

8 Though not an ideal measure it is the only com-

patible measure available over this time span

9 We ran the tests with four 4-point scale immigra-

tion attitude questions and the results were as fol-

lows for the question lsquoimmigrants are necessary

for the economyrsquo people who said immigration

was the biggest problem were significantly more

negative than those who did not (respectively

Mfrac14 26 Mfrac1424 Pfrac14 000) For the question lsquoim-

migrants will solve the age problemrsquo the results are

similar (Mfrac1428 Mfrac1426 Pfrac14000) The question

lsquoimmigrant contribute to societyrsquo was also an-

swered more positively by those who did not see

immigration as the biggest problem (Mfrac14 31

Mfrac14 26 Pfrac14000) while they tended to disagree

more with the statement lsquoimmigrants form a

threatrsquo (Mfrac14 22 Mfrac14 27 Pfrac14 000)

10 The translated search string reads (discrim or

(hate w5 onset) or (education or (course or les-

son) w10 (migrant or immi or alloch or asy-

lum or foreign)) or (class w1 DutchDanish) or

language course or language education or family

reunification or sham marriage or marry off or

immig or alloch or stranger or migran or mus-

lim or islam Or asylum or illegal or deported or

resident permit or multicult or (mass w1 regula-

ris) or regularis or import bride or (bride w5

foreign country) or (income requirement w20

marriag) or pluriform or asylum seeker or refu-

gee or (general pardon) or head scarve)

11 A total of 459 articles (of 55374) in the

Netherlands and 835 (of 86835) in Denmark

were coded ranging from two to seven per

month

280 European Sociological Review 2015 Vol 31 No 3

at Universiteit van A

msterdam

on February 2 2016httpesroxfordjournalsorg

Dow

nloaded from

12 See the Eurostat website for migr_pop3ctb and

migr_pop5ctz

13 These variables could not be measured in half

yearly figures which means that every year is

added twice To avoid Type I error marginally

significant results are interpreted with care

14 We also looked at Western immigrants and found

no effect

15 Measured on a 1ndash10 scale (1frac14 up to age 14 years

2frac14 up to 15 years and so on until 9frac14up to 22

years and 10frac14 still studying beyond age 22 years)

16 It is plausible that media effects and RWDs are

contingent upon individual characteristics We ran

each model including the interaction terms with

that of contextual and individual variables but

found no significant results

17 Further correlations between RWDs and media vari-

ables are presented in Supplementary Table A2

18 Each model controls for age education left-right

affiliation and gender Because our interest is

mostly in the influence of contextual characteris-

tics these are not presented but the results are in

line with previous studies Older people men less

educated and right-wing people are more nega-

tive Furthermore key events significantly increase

anti-immigration attitudes in Denmark

19 The model produced the following results inter-

cept -280 sefrac14019 immigrant inflows

logitfrac14 003 sefrac140005 u0jfrac14020 e0jfrac14 000 -2-

loglikelihoodfrac14904319

20 Likelihood ratio of 1647 dffrac14 1 Probgt v2frac14 000

21 This was done through 2010 to compare the same

periods in both countries

22 As Figure 2 shows media data for the Netherlands

was available up to 2010 The analyses in the

Netherlands therefore do not reach beyond that

point in time

Funding

This work was supported by the Netherlands Organisation

Scientific Research (NWO) Conflict and Security program

[432-08-130]

Supplementary Data

Supplementary data are available at ESR online

References

Allport G W (1954) The Nature of Prejudice Reading MA

Addison Wesley

Austin W G and Worchel S 1979 The Social Psychology of

Intergroup Relations Montery CA BrooksCole

Behr R and Iyengar S (1985) Television news real-world

cues and changes in the public agenda Public Opinion

Quarterly 49 38ndash57

Berkhout J and Sudulich M L (2011) Demographics of immi-

gration the Netherlands SOM Working Paper No 2011-07

available fromltSSRN httpssrncomabstractfrac141990213gt

Blumer H (1958) Race prejudice as a sense of group position

Pacific Sociological Review 1 3ndash7

Bommes M and Sciortino G (Eds) (2011) Foggy Social

Structures Irregular Migration European Labour Markets

and the Welfare State IMISCOE Research Amsterdam

University Press

Boomgaarden H G (2007) Framing the Others News and

Ethnic Prejudice Manuscript University of Amsterdam

(dissertation)

Boomgaarden H G and Vliegenthart R (2007) Explaining

the rise of anti-immigrant parties the role of news content

in the Netherlands 1990ndash2002 Electoral Studies 26

404ndash417

Boomgaarden H G and Vliegenthart R (2009) How news

content influences anti immigration attitudes Germany 1993-

2005 European Journal of Political Research 48 516ndash542

Boswell C (2005) A paper prepared for the Policy Analysis

and Research Programme of the Global Commission on

International Migration Migration Research Group

Hamburg Institute of International Economics

Brochmann G Borevi K Hagelund A Jonsson H V and

Petersen K (2012) Immigration Policy and the Scandinavian

Welfare State 1945-2010 Hampshire Palgrave Macmillan

Ceobanu A M and Escandell X (2010) Comparative analyses

of public attitudes toward immigrants and immigration using

multinational survey data a review of theories and research

Annual Review of Sociology 36 309ndash328

De Vreese C H and Boomgaarden H G (2006) Media mes-

sage flows and interpersonal communication the conditional

nature of effects on public opinion Communication Research

33 1ndash19

Dixon T L and Azocar C L (2007) Priming crime and acti-

vating blackness understanding the psychological impact of

the overrepresentation of blacks as lawbreakers on television

news Journal of Communication 57 229ndash253

Domke D (2001) Racial cues and political ideology

Communication Research 28 772ndash801

Downs A (1972) Up and down with ecology ndash The lsquoissue-

attention cyclersquo Public Interest 28 28ndash50

Esser F and Brosius HB (1996) Television as Arsonist The

spread of right-wing violence in Germany European Journal

of Communication 11 235ndash260

Firebaugh G and Davis K E (1988) Trends in antiblack

prejudice 1972-1984 region and cohort effects American

Journal of Sociology 94 251ndash272

Gilliam F D and Iyengar S (2000) Prime suspects the influ-

ence of local television news on the viewing public American

Journal of Political Science 44 560ndash573

European Sociological Review 2015 Vol 31 No 3 281

at Universiteit van A

msterdam

on February 2 2016httpesroxfordjournalsorg

Dow

nloaded from

Goidel R K and Langley R E (1995) Media coverage of the

economy and aggregate economic evaluations uncovering evi-

dence of indirect media effects Political Research Quarterly

48 313ndash328

Guo G and Zhao H X (2000) Multilevel modeling for binary

data Annual Review of Sociology 26 441ndash462

Hainmueller J and Hiscox M J (2007) Educated preferences

explaining attitudes toward immigration in Europe

International Organization 61 399ndash442

Hallin D C and Mancini P (2004) Comparing Media

Systems Three Models of Media and Politics Cambridge

Cambridge University Press

Helbling M (2014) Opposing Muslims and the Muslim head-

scarf in Western Europe European Sociological Review 30

242ndash257

Helbling M and Kriesi H (2014) Why citizens prefer high-

over low-skilled immigrants Labor market competition wel-

fare state and deservingness European Sociological Review

30 595ndash614

Higgins ET (1989) Knowledge accessibility and activation

Subjectivity and suffering from unconscious sources In J S

Uleman and J A Bargh (Eds) Unintended Thought New

York NY Guilford pp 75ndash123

Hooghe L Meeuwsen C and Quintelier E (2013) The im-

pact of education and intergroup friendship on the develop-

ment of ethnocentrism A latent growth curve model analysis

of a five-year panel study among Belgian late adolescents

European Sociological Review 29 1109ndash1121

Jensen K Nielsen J H Braelignder M Mouritsen P and

Olsen T V (2010) Tolerance and Cultural Diversity

Discourses in Denmark Accept Pluralism Working Paper 7

2010 Published by the European University Institute Robert

Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies

Jerit J Barabas J and Bolsen T (2006) Citizens knowledge

and the information environment American Journal of

Political Science 50 266ndash282

LeVine R A and Campbell D T (1972) Ethnocentrism

Theories of Conflict Ethnic Attitudes and Group Behavior

New York NY John Wiley and Son

Lijphart A (1971) Comparative politics and the comparative

method American Political Science Review 65 682ndash693

Manevska K and Achterberg P (2013) Immigration and per-

ceived ethnic threat cultural capital and economic explan-

ations European Sociological Review 29 437ndash449

Meuleman R and Lubbers M (2013) Manifestations of na-

tionalist attitudes domestic music listening participation in

national celebrations and far right voting European

Sociological Review 29 1214ndash1225

Money J (1999) Defining Immigration Policy Inventory

Quantitative Referents and Empirical Regularities Mimeo

University of California Davis

Neuman W R (1990) The threshold of public attention The

Public Opinion Quarterly 54 159ndash176

Persson A V and Musher-Eizenman D R (2005) College stu-

dentsrsquo attitudes toward Blacks and Arabs following a terrorist

attack as a function of varying levels of media exposure

Journal of Applied Social Psychology 35 1879ndash1892

Power J G Murphy S T and Coover G (1996) Priming

prejudice How stereotypes and counter-stereotypes influence

attribution of responsibility and credibility among ingroups

and outgroups Human Communication Research 23 36ndash58

Przeworski A and Teune H (1970) The Logic of

Comparative Social Inquiry New York NY Wiley

InterScience

Quillian L (1995) Prejudice as a response to perceived group

threat population composition and anti-Immigrant and racial

prejudice in Europe American Sociological Review 60

586ndash611

Reyes M A (2010) Immigration attention cycle Public

Attention Review 70 957ndash960

Saltier J and Woelfel J (1975) Inertia in cognitive processes

the role of accumulative information in attitude change

Human Communication Research 1 333ndash344

Scheepers P Gijsberts M and Coenders M (2002) Ethnic

exclusionism in European countries public opposition to civil

rights for legal migrants as a response to perceived ethnic

threat European Sociological Review 18 17ndash34

Schemer C (2012) The influence of news media on stereotypic

attitudes toward immigrants in a political campaign Journal

of Communication 62 739ndash757

Schluter E and Davidov E (2013) Contextual sources of per-

ceived group threat negative immigration-related news re-

ports immigrant group size and their interaction Spain 1996-

2007 European Sociological Review 29 179ndash191

Schwenk C R (1988) The cognitive perspective on strategic

decision making Journal of Management Studies 25 41ndash56

Schmitt-Beck R (2003) Mass communication personal com-

munication and vote choice The filter hypothesis of media in-

fluence in comparative perspective British Journal of Political

Science 33 153ndash173

SCP (2009) Jaarrapport Integratie 2009 Den Haag Sociaal en

Cultureel Planbureau

SCP (2012) Jaarrapport Integratie 2011 Den Haag Sociaal en

Cultureel Planbureau

Shoemaker P J and Reese S D (1996) Mediating the

Message Theories of Influences on Mass Media Content New

York NY Longman

Semyonov M Raijman R and Gorodzeisky A (2006) The

rise of anti-foreigner sentiment in European societies 1988-

2000 American Sociological Review 71 426ndash449

Shrum L J (2009) Media consumption and perceptions of social

reality effects and underlying processes In B Jennings and

M B Oliver (Eds) Media Effects Advances in Theory and

Research 3rd edn New York NY Psychology Press pp 50ndash73

Sides J and Citrin J (2007) European opinion about immigra-

tion The role of identities interests and information British

Journal of Political Science 37 477ndash504

Smith T J (1988) The Vanishing Economy Television

Coverage of Economic Affairs 1982ndash1987 Washington DC

Media Institute

282 European Sociological Review 2015 Vol 31 No 3

at Universiteit van A

msterdam

on February 2 2016httpesroxfordjournalsorg

Dow

nloaded from

Tajfel H and Turner J C (1979) An integrative theory of

intergroup conflict In W G Austin and S Worchel (Eds)

The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations Monterey

CA Brooks-Cole pp 33ndash47

Vergeer M Lubbers M and Scheepers P (2000) Exposure to

newspapers and attitudes towards ethnic minorities a longitudinal

analysis Howard Journal of Communications 11 127ndash143

Vliegenthart R and Boomgaarden H G (2007) Real-world

indicators and the coverage of immigration and the integra-

tion of minorities in Dutch newspapers European Journal of

Communication 22 293ndash314

Vliegenthart R and Roggeband C (2007) Framing immigra-

tion and integration relationships between press and parlia-

ment in the Netherlands International Communication

Gazette 69 295ndash319

Walgrave S and de Swert K (2004) The making of the (issues

of the) Vlaams Blok Political Communication 21 479ndash500

Ward C Bochner S and Furnham A (2001) The Psychology

of Culture Shock 2nd edn Hove Routledge

Wlezien C (2005) On the salience of political issues the prob-

lem with lsquomost importantrsquo problemrsquo Electoral Studies 24

555ndash579

Zaller J (1992) The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion

Cambridge Cambridge University Press

Zaller J (1996) The myth of massive media impact revived

new support for a discredited idea In D Mutz R Brody and

P M Sniderman (Eds) Political Persuasion and Attitude

Change Ann Arbor MI University of Michigan Press

pp 17ndash79

European Sociological Review 2015 Vol 31 No 3 283

at Universiteit van A

msterdam

on February 2 2016httpesroxfordjournalsorg

Dow

nloaded from