Why the media matter after all: A response to Pauwels

This is a response to Pauwels’ critique of our 2007 Electoral Studies article about the relationship between media content and anti-immigrant party support. We argue here, that Pauwels’ criticism falls short in three respects: (1) it is based on a selective presentation of our and others’ arguments; (2) it fails to distinguish between cross-sectional and longitudinal explanations of anti-immigrant party support; and (3) it presents an overly simplified re-analysis which fails to take into account the dynamic properties of the time-series. Certainly, Pauwels’ article contains some interesting suggestions for future research, but his assessment offers no strong evidence for a different interpretation of the relationship between media and anti-immigrant party support than the one given in our original article.

Research highlights
► Pauwels presents selective arguments.
► The critique fails to distinguish cross-sectional and time-series analysis.
► The article presents an overly simple re-analysis.