Esser, FrankVreese, Claes deHopmann, DavidAalberg, ToriAelst, Peter VanBerganza, RosaHubé, NicolasLegnante, GuidoMathes, JörgPapathanasssopoulos, StylianosReinemann, CarstenSalgado, SusanaSheafer, TamirStayner, JamesStrömbäck, Jesper2016-09-272016-09-272017Esser, F., De Vreese, C., Hopmann, N., Aaberg, T., Van Aelst, P., Berganza ...Strömbäck, J. (2017). The explanatory logic: factors that shape political news. In C. de Vreese, F. Esser & D. Hopmann (Eds.), Comparing Political Journalism, 22-32. London & New York: Routledge978-1-138-65585-0http://hdl.handle.net/10451/24744Insights gained depend on the questions asked. This chapter describes the why and the how of our study's approach. After outlining some principal research interests of comparative news analyses, we introduce a theoretical hierarchy of influences that needs to be observed in order to understand the construction of media content. In fitting this model to the specific requirements of our study, we emphasize, in particular, the importance of integrating event-centered and mediacentered considerations, of incorporating an explicit comparative perspective, and of applying appropriate strategies of data analysis. The main part of the chapter introduces the explanatory factors that are used in this study to elucidate crossnational and cross-organizational differences in joumalists' use of the six core concepts of political news. The explanatory factors are systematized according to their level of analysis, and we provide a great many examples to illustrate their use in this study, together with concrete operationalizations. We conclude by situating our own approach in the recent development of explanation-oriented comparative news research.engPolitical newsPoltical journalismbook part