Recent research demonstrates that political parties in western Europe are generally structured along one dimension – and often take more or less similar ideological positions on the economic and cultural dimension – whereas the policy preferences of voters are structured two dimensionally; a considerable part of the electorate combines left-wing stances on one dimension with right-wing stances on the other. These ideologically ‘unserved’ voters are the main focus of this study. Using data from a large-scale survey in Flanders and Wallonia, we demonstrate how the salience of the two dimensions explains whether these unserved voters ultimately end up voting for a right-wing or a left-wing party. Specifically, we show that these voters elect a party that is ideologically closest on the dimension that they deem most important at that time. To summarise, the findings of this study confirm that salience is a key driver of electoral choice, especially for cross-pressured voters.

This paper studies how scientists appear as news sources in Flemish television news. The focus lies on (1) which political scientists serve as news source, (2) how they are portrayed, and (3) whether their appearances in the news differ from those of scientists from other disciplines. By means of a content analysis over a three-year period (July 2011 – June 2014), the paper shows that political scientists mainly appear in the news to comment upon topical events. Items featuring scientists from other disciplines – other human sciences and especially natural sciences – are more often related to scientific research. Political scientists use other arguments than natural scientists, whose contributions contain less own opinions, and more concrete data and figures, and human scientists (including political scientists) are less often interviewed in a research environment. In the concluding section, the potential consequences of these media appearances for political science as a discipline are discussed.