Political Communication

1
Political Communication

• Course overview
• Deadlines
• Essay topics
• Resources
• Introductory lecture
• Defining the concept political communication
• Social change and the rising importance of
  political communication

2
Course overview

• Lecture topics
• Propaganda
• Public relations, political marketing and spin
• Media as political actors
• Media effects
• Election campaigns

• Rhetoric and manipulation
• Foreign affairs and political communication
• Terrorism as/and communication
• Deliberation, e-democracy, and the virtual public
  sphere
• Truth, lying and bullshit in political
  communication

3
Assessments and deadlines

• Tutorial presentation (requirement, unassessed)
• Essay (40)
• Exam (60)
• Deadline for submitting essay (through turnitin)
  6 December 2006

4
Essay topics

• Can/should there be limits to freedom of speech?
• To what extent is political speech the defence
  of the indefensible?
• Would less hostility between spin doctors and
  journalists be good for democracy?
• Are opinionated, partisan, biased media a
  problematic source for political information?
• Does a democracy require well informed citizens?
• What are the pros and cons of negative
  campaigning?
• Are democratic elections anything more than
  rhetorical contests?
• Can modern wars be won without communication
  strategies?
• If terrorism is a form of communication, then
  whats the message and who is the receiver?
• Should we abandon general elections and
  substitute them with deliberative polls?

5
Resources

• All titles on the reading list are accessible
  online or in the Heavy Demand section of Queen
  Mother Library
• Search engine
• http//scholar.google.com
• E-journals databases
• http//www.il.proquest.com/pqdauto
• http//www.ingentaconnect.com/search/advanced
• E-journals alphabetical listing
• http//www.abdn.ac.uk/diss/library/ejournal/alphal
  ist.shtml
• E-books
• http//site.ebrary.com/lib/aberdeenuniv

6
Defining Political Communication

• Chaffee (1975) Political Communication
• the role of communication in the political
  process
• McNair (1995) Introduction to Political
  Communication
• Any book about political communication should
  begin by acknowledging that the term has proved
  to be notoriously difficult to define with any
  precision, simply because both components of the
  phrase are themselves open to a variety of
  definitions, more or less broad.
• McQuail (1992) Political Communication in
  Encyclopedia of Government and Politics
• Political communication refers to all
  processes of information (including facts,
  opinions, beliefs, etc.), transmission, exchange
  and search engaged in by participants in the
  course of institutionalised political
  activities.

7
McQuails definition

• Communication in the political (constitutional)
  system of democratic society
• Media fulfilling instrumental functions in
  political communications
• as a reporter of events
• as a platform for the expression of political
  opinion
• as an instrument of political party organization
  and weapon in inter-party conflicts
• as a watchdog on governmental actions
• as an instrument of government for information
  and influence

8
Exchange between elites and masses

• Watts (1997)
• understands function of mass media to be that of
  intermediaries in the process of political
  communication, enabling the government and its
  opponents to speak to the electorate and the
  electorate to communicate with its leaders
• Perloff (1998)
• defines political communication as the process
  by which a nations leadership, media and
  citizenry exchange and confer meaning upon
  messages that relate to the conduct of public
  policy.

9
History of political communication research

• Beginning with the study of propaganda during and
  between the two world wars
• Walter Lippmanns Public Opinion (1922)
• Harold Lasswells Propaganda Technique in the
  World War (1927)
• Early focus on war/fascist/stalinist propaganda
  resulting in a general preoccupation with
  persuasive effects of political messages (through
  media)
• According to McQuail (Mass Communication
  Theory), first period of communication studies
  (1920s-1940s) characterised by belief in
  omnipotence of mass media

10
Social, technological, structural change

• 1940s-1950s first empirical studies of media
  effects, in particular campaign studies
• Minimal effects model
• Lazarsfeld et al, The Peoples Choice (1944)
• Low levels of information, high levels of
  partisanship, habitual voting
• Social change since 1960s
• Dealignment
• Technological change
• TV becoming main information medium
• Commercialisation, visualisation, tabloidisation
• Professionalisation of political communication
• Political marketing, campaign consultancy

11
Third age of political communication

• Blumler (2001)
• First age 1950s
• easy access to media, political communication
  reflecting partisan positions, reinforcing rather
  than persuading, strong and stable political
  institutions
• Second age 1960s-1980s
• Limited-channel network television, dealignment,
  consumerism, public skepticism about elites,
  increasing importance of political communication,
  and increasingly important role for media in
  political process, the modern publicity process
• Third age 1990s-present
• Proliferation within and beyond mainstream media,
  abundance of channels, unlimited reach,
  possibility for interactivity

12
Effects of abundance

• Change in the politics-media relationship
• Limits of efficacy of news management
• Costs vs. benefits of political spin
• Decentralisation, localisation, diversification
  of campaigning
• Possible reintroduction of political substance at
  expense of spin
• Hypercompetition
• Populism
• talk-show democracy
• Centrifugal diversification
• Abundance of channels allows to move away from
  universal audience appeals towards fragmented
  targeting
• Internet
• Virtual public sphere
• E-democracy