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[Commlist] Call for Papers - Polls as a means of political legitimation*
Tue Feb 15 20:09:15 GMT 2022
*Call for Papers - Polls as a means of political legitimation*
Two-day symposium (English & French) on “Polls as a means of political
legitimation” from June, 9-10, 2022 in Brussels. Deadline for 500-word
abstracts is March 6, 2020.
All information about the conference are available here:
https://www.protagoras.be/en/call-for-proposal-protagoras-symposium-2022/
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Deeply political, both in their production and their effects, polls
provide a communication tool and a symbolic device (Blondiaux, 1998;
Champagne, 2015) on which candidates, political parties, politicians,
and journalists rely to speak on behalf of the citizens. “Public
opinion” harnessed through polls derives its performative force from a
“scientific” measure: a percentage established by polls (Aldrin & Hubé,
2017) – allowing to perceive information as reliable and incontestable
(Grunberg & Mayer, 2014). As a commercial product (e.g., the methods
used, their purpose) polls are often controversial. It is key to address
the innate biases (Knobloch-Westerwick et al., 2020) and blind spots of
those who develop and exploit polls to feed a campaign strategy or
justify a public stance (Corzine & Woolley, 2018).
While major polling failures speak for themselves (Giuliani, 2018),
polls can be used to instrumentalise or even manipulate public opinion
(Maquis, 2005). The legitimacy of polls is regularly questioned, raising
suspicions (e.g., the financing of partially manipulated polls serving
exclusively partisan political interests like the recent scandal of
faked polls in Austria) and mistrust (e.g., the criticism of some
editorial offices, such as the newspaper Ouest France, to the detriment
of a genuine debate).
Today, the importance of opinion polls must be discussed in the context
of an increasing “doxophrenia”, i.e., the obsessive need to quantify
opinions, and an increasing mistrust (of citizens as well as political
actors) towards opinion polls. The focus of this conference is thus on
questions of legitimacy and legitimation as well as opinion polls as an
instrument of political communication: polling expertise considered both
as a method of forecasting and political framing.
The discussions will focus on three thematic areas:
1. The reception of polls by actors in the media
Opinion polls describe and influence dynamics of election campaigns and
other political events. Opinion surveys constitute a “hot topic”
dictating the pace of campaigns and fostering the “priming” effect
(Scheufele, 2000; Tewksbury & Dietram, 2007; Tryggvason, 2021). The
media guarantees opinion polls a central role in defining today’s public
debate (Kessler, 2002). Moreover, survey results are instrumental in
“framing” political issues or controversies (Herbst, 1998; Entman,
2007). This first focus therefore addresses the interactions between
pollsters, political staff, and actors in the media. It proposes to
examine the media’s responsibility in influencing public opinion.
Questions referring to this area are: How are different political
parties framed in relation to published poll results? What effects in
perception are created among voters?
2. The instrumentalization of polls by political communication
In addition to their decisive impact on electoral processes at the
national level, opinion data constitute an essential resource for the
legitimisation of the European Union. Despite a rigorous methodology,
the production and use of opinion data by and for the EU still raises
several questions – due to certain heuristic shortcuts (Gaxie et al.,
2011), the diachronic dimension of the surveys (Aldrin, 2010) or an
inherent cognitivist bias (Aldrin, 2009). Thus, the third area focuses
on the Eurobarometer as a tool for legitimising the EU as a
transnational political project. How does Eurobarometer data represent
the European political project with its citizens and what are its
limitations?
3. The role of Eurobarometers
In addition to their decisive impact on electoral processes at the
national level, opinion data constitute an essential resource for the
legitimisation of the European Union. Despite a rigorous methodology,
the production and use of opinion data by and for the EU still raises
several questions – due to certain heuristic shortcuts (Gaxie et al.,
2011), the diachronic dimension of the surveys (Aldrin, 2010) or an
inherent cognitivist bias (Aldrin, 2009). Thus, the third area focuses
on the Eurobarometer as a tool for legitimising the EU as a
transnational political project. How does Eurobarometer data represent
the European political project with its citizens and what are its
limitations?
The symposium will organise separate panels in French and English
THE SYMPOSIUM WILL BE FOLLOWED BY A PUBLICATION IN THE “CAHIERS
PROTAGORAS” (Éditions L’Harmattan)
Submission and participation guidelines
Proposals (in Word or PDF format) should include:
In a separate file: name, professional or academic status,
institutional affiliation, contact details of the author(s) (e-mail and
postal addresses).
The title of the paper (maximum 180 characters including spaces).
The axis of the conference within which the paper is to be presented.
A 500-word abstract (excluding references) highlighting the
interest of the contribution and including an overview of the problematic.
Proposals for papers may be presented either as reflective analyses
based on recent and completed empirical research, or as analyses of
professional communication practises.
Deadline for proposals is March 6, 2022. Please send your abstract to
(conference /at/ protagoras.be).
Abstracts will be evaluated through a double-blind review process by the
scientific committee. Authors will be notified of the decision of the
organisational committee on March 28, 2022.
Practicalities
Dates of the Symposium: 9 & 10 June 2022
Partners
Organisation Committee
Nicolas BAYGERT
IHECS-Protagoras, Sciences Po (IEP Paris) & Université Libre de Bruxelles.
Baptiste BUIDIN
IHECS-Protagoras Research Fellow, Université Libre de Bruxelles.
Thierry DEVARS
CELSA Sorbonne-University, (GRIPIC).
Esther DURIN
Applied Research Coordinator (IHECS), Université Paul-Valéry (Praxiling).
Isabelle LE BRETON FALEZAN
CELSA Sorbonne-University, (GRIPIC).
Élise LE MOOING-MAAS
President of the IHECS PR Section, Université Rennes 2 (PREFics).
Loïc NICOLAS
IHECS-Protagoras Research Fellow.
Gisela REITER
FHWien der WKW University of Applied Sciences for Management &
Communication.
Uta RUSSMANN
University of Innsbruck.
John VANDENHAUTE
Research & Development Coordinator, IHECS-Protagoras.
Scientific Committee
Nicolas Baygert
IHECS-Protagoras, Sciences Po (IEP Paris) & Université Libre de Bruxelles.
Vincent Carlino
Université catholique de l’Ouest (UCO), Nantes.
Lucie Château
Tilburg University.
Anne-Marie Cotton
Haute école Artevelde de Gent, Université Bordeaux Montaigne (MICA)
François Debras
Université de Liège (HELMO).
Lucile Desmoulin
Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée (DICEN-IDF)
Thierry Devars
CELSA Sorbonne-University, (GRIPIC).
Charles Devellennes
University of Kent
Esther Durin
IHECS-Protagoras, Université Paul-Valéry (Praxiling).
Helen Etchanchu
Montpellier Business School
Alexandre Eyries
Université de Bourgogne (Ciméos)
Adrien Jahier
IHECS-Protagoras Research Fellow.
Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels
University of Kent (BSIS).
Alexander Kondratov
Université Libre de Bruxelles (ReSIC), IHECS.
Isabelle Le Breton Falezan
CELSA Sorbonne-University, (GRIPIC).
Élise Le Moing-Maas
IHECS-Protagoras, Université Rennes 2 (PREFics).
Brieuc Lits
Université Saint-Louis – Bruxelles
Philippe Marion
Université Catholique de Louvain (ORM)
Loïc Nicolas
IHECS-Protagoras Research Fellow.
Alvaro Oleart
Vrije Universiteit (VU), Amsterdam.
Uta Rußmann
University of Innsbruck.
Kelly Céleste VOSSEN
Université Saint-Louis, Bruxelles
References
Aldrin, P. (2009). L’Union Européenne face à l’opinion. Construction et
usages politiques de l’opinion comme problème communautaire,
Savoir/Agir,1 (7), p. 13-23.
Aldrin, P. (2010). L’invention de l’opinion publique européenne. Genèse
intellectuelle et politique de l’Eurobaromètre (1950-1973). Politix
1(89), p. 79-101.
Aldrin, P.,& Hubé, N. (2017) Introduction à la communication politique.
Louvain-la-Neuve : De Boeck Supérieur.
Belot, C., Boussaguet, L. & Halpern, C. (2016). La fabrique d’une
opinion publique européenne : Sélection, usages et effets des
instruments. Politique européenne, 54, 84-125.
Blondiaux, L. (1998). La fabrique de l’opinion. Une histoire sociale des
sondages. Paris : Seuil.
Brochot, V. (2013). Le sondage d’opinion : attribut de la démocratie ou
manipulation de l’opinion. Pouvoirs, 145, 141-154.
Champagne, P. (2015). Faire l’opinion : le nouveau jeu politique. Paris
: Minuit.
Chou, H.-Y. (2019). Labeling candidates as underdogs in political
communications: The moderation of candidate-related factors. Electoral
Studies, 59, 120–135.
Corzine, J.S., & Woolley, P.J. (2018). In Defense of Polls, Though Not
Necessarily Pollsters, Pundits or Strategists. Political Science and
Politics, 51(1), pp. 159-164.
Entman, R. M. (2007). Framing bias: Media in the distribution of power.
Journal of communication, 57(1), 163-173.
Gaxie, D., Hubé, N., De Lassalle, M., et Rowell, J. (2011). L’Europe des
Européens. Enquête comparative sur les perceptions de l’Europe.
Economica, coll. « Etudes Politiques ».
Grunberg, G., & Mayer, N. (2014). L’effet sondage. Des citoyens
ordinaires aux élites politiques. In: Y. Déloye et al., Institutions,
élections, opinions (pp. 219-236), Paris : Presses de Sciences po.
Giuliani, M. (2018). Making sense of pollsters’ errors. An analysis of
the 2014 second-order European election predictions. Journal of
Elections Public Opinion and Parties, 1-17.
Herbst, S. (1998). Reading Public Opinion. How Political Actors View the
Democratic Process. Chicago : The University of Chicago Press.
Jacobs, L.R. & Shapiro, R.Y. (1995). Presidential Manipulation of Polls
and Public Opinion: The Nixon Administration and the Pollsters.
Political Science Quarterly, 110(4), 519–538.
Kessler, E. (2002). « La folie des sondeurs. De la trahison des opinions
». Paris : Denoël.
Knobloch-Westerwick, S., Mothes, C., & Polavin, N. (2020). Confirmation
Bias, Ingroup Bias, and Negativity Bias in Selective Exposure to
Political Information. Communication Research, 47(1), 104–124.
Marquis, L (2005). Sondages d’opinion et communication politique. Les
Cahiers du CEVIPOF, 38, Centre de recherches politiques de Sciences Po.
Scheufele, D.A. (2000). Agenda-Setting, Priming, and Framing Revisited:
Another Look at Cognitive Effects of Political Communication. Mass
Communication & Society, 3(2-3), 297-316.
Scheufele, D.A., & Tewksbury, D. (2007). Framing, Agenda Setting, and
Priming: The Evolution of Three Media Effects Models. Journal of
Communication, 57(1), 9–20.
Tryggvason, O. (2021). The Winner-Loser Spiral in Political News
Coverage: Investigating the Impact of Poll Coverage on Subsequent Party
Coverage. Political Communication, 38(6), 672–690.
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