A place to speak and be heard? Parliamentary speech and media attention in Estonia, 2011–2019

Abstract

While existing studies have addressed the importance of political profile for media visibility, far fewer works have examined how speaking in parliament is associated with media attention—an important mechanism in reaching out to voters. This paper tests how the amount and particularly the style of parliamentary speech are related to media attention. We employ a unique data set that covers all parliamentary transcripts for the 2011–2015 and 2015–2019 parliamentary terms in Estonia and online media content from that period (~ 2.7 million news articles). We assume that MPs can use parliamentary speech as a tool to foster personal attention. First, the results show that MPs who speak in parliament receive more media attention than those who do not, and speaking more means more media visibility. Second, the media pays more attention to rank‐and‐file MPs who use more negative, complex language and more singular and plural first‐person pronouns.