The political landscape in Europe is currently changing where there is a clear trend with losses of seats among traditional (center) parties and gains among populist parties. The changes in the political landscape are significant. Where does this come from? Previous research has shown that Schwartz human values are related to political preference, but also that people's values do not change significantly especially after young adulthood.
Media have a big influence on people's voting behavior. But what is the relationship between media messages and choice of political parties? Do more media messages about dangerous situations with migrants capitalizing on security values lead to a greater preference for populist parties, or is it precisely the case that a political poll showing a larger number of seats for populist parties leads to more coverage of security value-related texts in the media?
Using the media monitoring data from the JRC in the period 2014-2024, we extract Schwartz values from Dutch media and analyze the prevalence of values over time. Relating these outcomes to bi-weekly political polling data from the highly fragmented political landscape with over 20 political parties Netherlands in the same period 2014-2024 allows us to assess the causal bidirectional relationship between value framing in the media and voting behavior.