This research found that the status of legislators brought about different patterns of media coverage during the 9th Legislative Yuan (2016-2020). It focuses on the news coverage by legislators and examines the patterns of the media coverage engendered by them. A news report database was adopted from the Congressional Library of the Legislative Yuan and context analysis was conducted.

This approach divided legislators’ reports into three types: “Professional News,” directly related to the duties of legislators; “Political News,” related to extra political positions (ex. party whips) or current political affairs; and “Private News,” related to the personal life and non-political issues of the legislators. Differences in the patterns of the news coverage of legislators could have an impact on their re-election outcome. This study found that media coverage was influenced by both the legislators and the media. Factors included the motivation or pressure by legislators for media exposure as well as the news value from the perspective of media operation and selection. The factors affecting the amount of media presence for legislators can be roughly divided into external structural conditions and personal messaging strategies. External structural factors refer to the selection of news materials and framework by journalists, while individual conditions include the gender, seniority, experience in cadre positions of individual legislators, and political structure and executive and legislative relations, among others. We found that the specific status of a legislator often led to a specific pattern of media coverage; however, more extensive media exposure did not necessarily lead to successful re-election. During the 9th Legislative Yuan, “Professional News” was the factor most likely to have a positive impact on re-election success, while “Political News” and “Private News” had little impact on the re-election success of legislators.