Abstract

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are pivotal organizations in knowledge societies. A growing need for societal legitimation has led many HEIs to expand their media efforts – as news media are important sources through which both the broader public and stakeholders inform themselves about HEIs. Despite this importance of the news media – HEI nexus, few studies have analyzed it, and the scholarship has considerable gaps. Most studies focus on few news outlets, specific media types, or coverage of a few research universities. Therefore, this study provides a comprehensive picture of coverage of all Swiss HEIs across diverse media. Using data from quantitative content analysis of news articles (N = 5,732), official statistics, and HEI websites, we conducted a hierarchical cluster analysis to map coverage. We identified 6 types of HEIs that differ from official distinctions of HEIs, are portrayed differently in news media, and exhibit different structural characteristics. Only 2 types receive a high amount of coverage, showing that few large and strongly resourced universities have great advantages in the competition for visibility.