The Netherlands: Media Logic and Floating Voters?

The Netherlands is a key example of a Northern European “democratic corporatist” media system (Hallin & Mancini, 2004). It is characterized by a consensual political system, a welfare state model, a tradition of political–press parallelism, a professionalized news and journalism culture, a strong public broadcasting ethos, and a strong state intervention to protect press freedom. In this chapter the specifics of the country are discussed and the implications for election coverage are outlined.