Right-wing politics dominating election campaigns on TV, radio

Right-wing politicians dominated the parliamentary election campaign on television and radio, according to research by VU University, Utrecht University, and the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Image. In parliament, the right-wing parties have about half of the seats, but in media they received three times as much attention as the left wing parties, the researchers found, NOS reports.

The researchers analyzed the performances of politicians in 45 radio and TV programs on public broadcasters between February 1 and March 12. They also looked at who was discussed the most.

In the programs analyzed, the coalition parties were given 19 hours of speaking time, the left-wing opposition 12 hours, and the populist opposition two hours.

Women appeared on the programs much less often, with 499 appearances against male politicians' 1,164. On average women spoke for longer at two minutes and five seconds, against the men's average of one minute and eleven seconds.

Unsurprisingly, prime minster and VVD leader Mark Rutte had the most appearances at 214. That is more than number two and three combined - CDA members and Ministers Hugo de Jonge and Wopke Hoekstra at 200 appearances each.

When looking at the number of minutes of screen- and radio time, Hoekstra got the most, followed by Mark Rutte, D66 leader and Minister Sigrid Kaag, and SP leader Lilian Marijnissen.

Rutte was also the dominant topic of conversation - his name was by far most frequently mentioned on TV and Radio programs. Men were talked about three times as often as women. According to the researchers, that is a big difference given that five 'relevant' political parties are led by women.

PvdD leader Esther Ouwehand was the most frequently mentioned woman ending in seventh place on the list of most mentioned politicians. Kaag was the only other woman in the top 10.