Political communication

Last updated
President George W. Bush giving a speech on immigration in Glynco, Georgia. President Bush - Immigration Speech.jpg
President George W. Bush giving a speech on immigration in Glynco, Georgia.

Political communication is the study of political messaging that is communicated, usually to the public e.g. political campaigns, speeches and political advertising, often concerning the mass media. [1] It is an interdisciplinary field that draws from communication studies and political science. Political communication is concerned with ideas such as information flow, political influence, policy making, news, and public opinion. [2] The field also focuses on the study of political social media, propaganda, political economy of communication and non-profit organisations that communicate to affect political processes. [3] [4] Modern societal changes that have affected the field include the digitization of media, polarization and a movement towards a post-truth media environment.

Contents

History

Ancient History

Political communication has existed since antiquity. During this era it was common for rulers to use symbols and monuments to communicate power and authority to the masses. In ancient Greece, public speeches such as those delivered by Pericles in Athens, played a crucial role in shaping political discourse and rallying public support for war efforts. [5]

During the era of the Roman Empire, political communication took on a more sophisticated form with the use of propaganda, rhetoric, and public spectacles in order to try and influence public opinion. [6] Figures famed for their political communication skills include Cicero.

Modern era

After the creation of the print media with the dawn of the modern printing press in modern industrial Britain, this led to the ability to create modern mass media in the 20th century, which transformed political communication, giving rise to new forms of propaganda, advertising, and public relations. [7] Political leaders such as Winston Churchill and Franklin. D. Roosevelt utilized radio broadcasts to reach millions of listeners during times of crisis and war. Edward S. Herman notes that the expensive nature of the printing press meant that early on in the technology's existence, labour and co-operative organisations were easily priced out of the press media market due to capital constraints, meaning that corporations obtained an early grip on the market. [7] Herman therefore argues that this meant early on in the mass media of Britain, corporate right-wing voices would self-select editors to run their newspapers, stopping organised working class and left-wing voices from participating in the mass media market. [7]

The age of spin

During the 1990s and the early 2000s political spin had become common place as a form of political communication, with these political communicators known as spin doctors . For example governments like Tony Blair's in The United Kingdom and George W. Bush were known for this. [8] Tony Blair's Press Secretary Alistair Campbell, who was previously a journalist, [9] had the job of spinning bad situations that showed the British government in a bad light, by using press briefings with the British media. [10] Campbell became an influential and controversial addition to the political communication toolkit of Tony Blair's Labour government in the United Kingdom. This practice became standard in subsequent governments in Western countries like the United Kingdom [11] and the United States, with dedicated 'briefing rooms' whereby members of government address and communicate with the countries' press, which have came to be known as spin rooms.

Digital media

Today, due to the diversification of media during the digital age, political communication now also includes online platforms like social media, free online news channels on services like YouTube, X (previously Twitter), Meta platforms and online News Websites. This has changed how the public and voters receive their political news and information. For example Barack Obama's presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012 are notable for mobilizing supporters, as they helped innovate the use of social media to engage voters and raise funds. [12] Volodymyr Zelenskyy's successful 2019 Presidential Campaign also featured heavy usage of social media posts. [13]

Today, Political communication continues to evolve quickly, as new technologies such as AI and big data analytics have begun to reshape how campaigns can target and persuade voters. However, this has led to large concerns regarding misinformation, echo chambers, and online polarization. [14] Recent election manipulation events like the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal have now become an issue. [15] The company was found to have assisted Donald Trump's election campaign by unethically mining user's Facebook data, exemplifying increased levels of distrust of corporate and political institutions by the public. [16]

Key concepts

Darren G. Lilleker states that key concepts include: [4]

Key areas of study

Brian McNair states that key areas of study include: [17]

Political messaging

Robert E. Denton and Gary C. Woodward , define political communication as concerning the modes and intentions of message senders when attempting to influence the political environment.[ citation needed ] This includes public discussion (e.g. political speeches, news media coverage, and ordinary citizens' talk) that considers who has authority to sanction the allocation of public resources, who has authority to make decisions, as well as social meaning like what makes someone American.

"...the crucial factor that makes communication 'political' is not the source of a message, but its content and purpose."[ citation needed ]

Persuasion and rhetoric

Political communication has long used political persuasion, which is a key subfield for rhetoric studies. Political figures understand the role of the media in gaining the acceptance of voters. [18] For example, political communication delivered through social media tends to be accompanied by social interaction and public opinion. [19]

In political communication, rhetorical strategies such as logos, ethos, and pathos [20] are commonly used to persuade audiences, alongside techniques like metaphors, narratives, and strategic discourse, which shape public perception and influence opinion. [21] These rhetorical techniques contribute to framing, a process that determines how political issues are presented and understood. Through generic framing in the media, political rhetoric can emphasize conflict (contestation), political competition (strategic-game/horse-race), personal stories(human interest), economic consequences, or moral justifications. [22] These choices shape how the public interprets political events and policies, reinforcing certain viewpoints while downplaying others.

Strategic political communication

David L. Swanson and Dan Nimmo define political communication in relation to strategic communications as "the strategic use of communication to influence public knowledge, beliefs, and action on political matters." [23] They emphasize this strategic nature of political communication by highlighting the role of persuasion in political discourse. Brian McNair provides a similar definition when he writes that political communication is "purposeful communication about politics." For Brian McNair, this means that this not only covers verbal or written statements, but also visual representations such as dress attire, make-up, hairstyle or logo design. In other words, it also includes all those aspects that develop a 'political identity' or 'image'.[ citation needed ] According to Harald Borgebund, the author of Political Communication and the Realities of Democracy, "Political communication is essential in a democratic polity."[ citation needed ]

In terms of political communication and its relationship to modern agenda-setting, Vian Bakir defines strategic political communication as comprising 'political communication that is manipulative in intent, utilizes social scientific techniques and heuristic devices to understand human motivation, human behavior and the media environment in order to inform effectively what should be communicated – encompassing its detail and overall direction – and what should be withheld, with the aim of taking into account and influencing public opinion, and creating strategic alliances and an enabling environment for government policies – both at home and abroad'. [24]

To further expand on why political communication can be viewed as manipulative, Michael Gurevitch and Jay G. Blumler [23] state that "the very structure of political communication involves a division between movers and shakers at the top and bystanders below." Public access television has been one way in which political communication has been commbatted. Dr. Laura Stein states that "public access [television] has opened up a space for grassroots political communication on television" [23]

Abu Ghraib

In regards to the Political Strategic Communication in The USA one example is the Bush Administration's torture-for-intelligence policy, initiated after 9/11, which was kept secret for several years.[ citation needed ] While this secret policy was gradually revealed from 2004 onwards, revealed by the Abu Ghraib torture photos, the Bush administration engaged in strategic political communication to attempt to publicly re-frame and protect its policies.[ citation needed ] Strategic political communication during the event included both silencing and persuasive discursive activity. [25]

Discursive activity aimed at silencing consisted of plea bargains, censoring Guantánamo detainees’ descriptions of their own torture in pre–trial hearings[ citation needed ], deals with journalists to censor or withhold information that affected national security[ citation needed ], weeding out personal sousveillance of torture online,[ citation needed ] and suppression of visual sousveillance of torture while court–martials and criminal investigations proceeded.[ citation needed ] Destruction of videotapes of CIA interrogations and withholding key information from intelligence oversight committees also occurred.[ citation needed ] Those that were complicit aimed at suppressing this information to minimize public interest and discussion. [26]

Persuasive discursive activity included the propagation and repetition of key messages consistently over time, with the aim of misdirecting public attention from the silence–generating activities. Key Bush Administration messages included: that detainees were evil and dangerous terrorists,[ citation needed ] that the practice of extraordinary rendition was normal and pragmatic,[ citation needed ] that interrogation techniques,[ citation needed ] although were legal,[ citation needed ] that they were necessary and successful in preventing future acts of terror,[ citation needed ] and that Guantánamo was a model prison.[ citation needed ] Key British administration messages initially indicated igonorance of the American intelligence agencies’ new strategies, after which intelligence agencies’ guidelines were tightened, and then indicated that no direct involvement of British intelligence agencies were involved in extraordinary rendition.[ citation needed ] Key messages common to both the British and American Administrations were that the Abu Ghraib sousveillance and similar visual evidence involving British soldiers were examples of isolated abuse rather than a torture policy. [ citation needed ] This being indicated from changes to Army training and interrogation guidance under both the Bush and Blair Administrations.[ citation needed ] These messages were propagated through a range of discursive activities (including press conferences and media interviews, authorized leaks, real–time reporting, official investigations and public inquiries) and were periodically bolstered by selective public release of once–secret documents.[ citation needed ] The consistency of key messages over time, together with the offering up of specific evidence, gives the appearance of official disclosure and truth–telling,[ citation needed ] positioning the public as a force to which political administrations willingly hold themselves accountable.[ citation needed ]

The United Nations

According to Jake Sherman and Albert Trithart, “United Nations peace operations often struggle to communicate their messages to the local population and the broader global community.”[ citation needed ] It argued, therefore, that “the outdated public information approach of the United Nations must be transformed into more dynamic communications efforts.”, "This required missions to better understand key audiences, make better use of national staff, embrace technology, train leaders in effective communication, proactively engage with local populations, and tailor both the message and means of communication to particular audiences." [27]

The Middle East

Kai Hafez states that when discussing the Middle East concerning projects like e-projects “supported by a U.S. administration, are at best visionary and without any real practical use”. [28] Concering censorship, Hussein Amin states that “-because many people view censorship as a sign of social responsibility, civil society has a deep distrust of itself. While admitting that political communication in the mass media has diversified and developed some more liberal patterns in recent years”. [28] Further when it comes to national identities Nisbet et al., state that “Mass media have long been linked to the historical development and emergence of national identities and the modern nation-state by creating bounded spaces of political communication and discourse". [29]

In cases like the on-going conflict like in Syria, the majority of media formats are censored towards the Middle East in order to avoid further catastrophization of an event, possibly by the West.[ clarification needed ] For example, in Syria, the Rebel Free Syrian Army was created as an opposition to Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship. [30]

Political Economy of Communications

The Propaganda Model

During a political economy analysis of U.S. mass communications, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky developed a model during the 1980s call the propaganda model. [31] It theorized that the interests of globalized elites in the US were warping the journalistic integrity of the mass media and its attempts to communicate news, to critique modern Western communications. They suggest that the political consent of the electorate would also be damaged by this type of politicized news in the mass media:

"The more elusive or imaginary the foe, the better for manufacturing consent. The picture of the world that's presented to the public has only the remotest relation to reality." [32]

In terms of political communication, the propaganda model is generally used in the context of the globalized American corporate media and how it organically acts in the interests of corporate elites, specifically in an anti-democratic way. Therefore, Herman and Chomsky argue that the interests of the corporate elites are not overly concerned with the democratic rights of citizens and that this creates a new form of propaganda, which has damaging effects on democracies like the United States Government. [32]

Role of social media

Social media has become an increasingly important tool for political communication. For certain demographics it is one of the main platforms from which individuals acquire their news, and allows them to interact with it via commenting and sharing. [33] Social media has dramatically changed the way in which modern political campaigns are run. [34] [35] With more digital native citizens coming into the voting population, social media has become an important medium where politicians can establish themselves and engage with voters. [36] In an increasingly digitized world, new research has shown that social media is becoming increasingly important in electoral politics. [37]

Social media experience relies heavily on the user themselves due to the platforms' algorithms which tailor consumer experience for each user. This results in each person seeing more like-minded news due to the increase in digital social behavior. [38] Additionally, social media has changed politics because it has given politicians a direct medium to give their constituents information and the people to speak directly to the politicians. This informal nature can lead to informational mistakes because it is not being subjected to the same "fact-checking processes as institutional journalism." [39]

Social media creates greater opportunity for political persuasion due to the high number of citizens that regularly engage and build followings on social media. The more that a person engages on social media, the more influential they believe themselves to be, resulting in more people considering themselves to be politically persuasive. [40]

Australia

In Australia 86% of Australians access the Internet, and with a 17,048,864 voting age population, [41] around 14,662,023 voting population has access to Internet, and 65% of them use social media, with 9,530,314 Australian voters using social media. The 2013 Yellow™ Social Media Report also found that among internet users, 65% of Australians use social media, up from 62% in 2014. [42]

With almost half of the Australian voting population active on social media, political parties are adapting quickly to influence and connect with their voters. [43] Studies have found that journalists in Australia widely use social media in a professional context and that it has become a viable method of communication between the mainstream media and wider audiences. [44]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Chandler, D. (2011). A Dictionary of Media and Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780199568758.
  2. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-10-09. Retrieved 2016-06-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ↑ Gubbala, Richard Wike, Laura Silver, Janell Fetterolf, Christine Huang, Sarah Austin, Laura Clancy and Sneha (2022-12-06). "Social Media Seen as Mostly Good for Democracy Across Many Nations, But U.S. is a Major Outlier". Pew Research Center. Retrieved 2025-01-14.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. 1 2 Lilleker, D. G. (2006). Key concepts in political communication. Sage.
  5. ↑ Miller, Jerry L.; McKerrow, Raymie E. (2010). "History of Political Communication". Review of Communication. 10: 61–74. doi:10.1080/15358590903370233.
  6. ↑ Political communication - scholar commons. (n.d.). https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1100&context=comm
  7. 1 2 3 S. Herman, Edward (and Chomsky, Noam) (1988). Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (3rd ed.). New York: New York Pantheon Books. pp. 3–4. ISBN   0-375-71449-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ↑ Greenberg, David (September 24, 2006). "Spin Doctors". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 14, 2024.
  9. ↑ Barrett, Patrick (2003-06-25). "Campbell lambasts BBC over Iraq 'lies'". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-04-14.
  10. ↑ White, Michael (2000-03-15). "Inside story of a Campbell briefing". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-04-14.
  11. ↑ "Gordon Brown's former spin doctor is set for a surprise return to frontline politics". The Independent. 2016-02-19. Retrieved 2024-04-14.
  12. ↑ Source/ linked example required.
  13. ↑ Varshalomidze, Tamila (16 April 2019). "Ukraine media demands access to runoff frontrunner Zelensky". Al Jazeera.
  14. ↑ Reinemann, Carsten, ed. (2014). Political Communication. doi:10.1515/9783110238174. ISBN   978-3-11-023816-7.
  15. ↑ Wolffe, Richard (2018-03-21). "The evil genius of Cambridge Analytica was to exploit those we trust most". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-09-13.
  16. ↑ "Zuckerberg's apology tour has not done much to regain user trust". NBC News. 2018-04-18. Retrieved 2025-01-13.
  17. 1 2 McNair, Brian (2017-07-06). AN Introduction to Political Communication: Sixth Edition (6 ed.). Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315750293. ISBN   978-1-315-75029-3.
  18. ↑ Perloff, Richard M. (2012), The SAGE Handbook of Persuasion: Developments in Theory and Practice (2 ed.), Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc., pp. 258–277, doi:10.4135/9781452218410, ISBN   9781412983136 , retrieved 2023-05-09
  19. ↑ Gil de Zúñiga, Homero; Barnidge, Matthew; Diehl, Trevor (2018-11-15). "Political persuasion on social media: A moderated moderation model of political discussion disagreement and civil reasoning". The Information Society. 34 (5): 302–315. doi: 10.1080/01972243.2018.1497743 . ISSN   0197-2243. S2CID   59248808.
  20. ↑ Mshvenieradze, Tamar (2013-11-01). "Logos Ethos and Pathos in Political Discourse" (PDF). Theory and Practice in Language Studies. 3 (11). doi:10.4304/tpls.3.11.1939-1945. ISSN   1799-2591.
  21. ↑ Huddy, Leonie; Sears, David O.; Levy, Jack S.; Jerit, Jennifer, eds. (2023-09-18). The Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197541302.001.0001. ISBN   978-0-19-754130-2.
  22. ↑ Valenzuela, Sebastián; Piña, Martina; Ramírez, Josefina (2017-10-01). "Behavioral Effects of Framing on Social Media Users: How Conflict, Economic, Human Interest, and Morality Frames Drive News Sharing". Journal of Communication. 67 (5): 803–826. doi:10.1111/jcom.12325. ISSN   0021-9916.
  23. 1 2 3 Reference needed.
  24. ↑ Bakir, V. (2013). Torture, Intelligence and Sousveillance in the War on Terror: Agenda–Building Struggles. Farnham: Ashgate. p. 3. ISBN   9781472402554.
  25. ↑ Bakir, V. Torture, Intelligence and Sousveillance in the War on Terror: Agenda–Building Struggles. Farnham: Ashgate (2013)
  26. ↑ Sutanto, Haryo; Purbaningrum, Dwi (2022-12-29). "Representation of Power and Ideology on Jokowi's Speech". WACANA: Jurnal Ilmiah Ilmu Komunikasi. 21 (2): 238–251. doi: 10.32509/wacana.v21i2.2143 . ISSN   2598-7402. S2CID   255654982.
  27. ↑ Ibid., paras. 307–308. Technology was also emphasized in the 2014 final report of the Expert Panel on Technology and Innovation in UN Peacekeeping: “A more modern approach to strategic communications can enhance the mission's ability to deliver across its mandate. In addition, social media, crowdsourcing, big data and traditional public media sources must also be incorporated into the mix, and peacekeeping should maximize its use of open source information and analysis tools.” United Nations, “Performance Peacekeeping: Final Report of the Expert Panel on Technology and Innovation in UN Peacekeeping,” 2015. See also: Ingrid A. Lehmann, “Still Caught in the Crossfire? UN Peace Operations and Their Information Capacities,” in Communication and Peace, Julia Hoffmann and Virgil Hawkins, eds. (London: Routledge, 2015).
  28. 1 2 Hafez, Kai (April 2002). "Guest Editor's Introduction: Mediated Political Communication in the Middle East". Political Communication. 19 (2): 121–124. doi:10.1080/10584600252907399. ISSN   1058-4609. S2CID   144202049.
  29. ↑ Nisbet, Erik C.; Myers, Teresa A. (2010-10-29). "Challenging the State: Transnational TV and Political Identity in the Middle East". Political Communication. 27 (4): 347–366. doi:10.1080/10584609.2010.516801. ISSN   1058-4609. S2CID   5548665.
  30. ↑ DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY WASHINGTON DC (2000-09-15). "The Army Public Affairs Program". Fort Belvoir, VA. doi:10.21236/ada407635.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  31. ↑ Harcup, Tony (2014-09-18), "propaganda model", A Dictionary of Journalism, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acref/9780199646241.001.0001, ISBN   978-0-19-964624-1 , retrieved 2024-04-14
  32. 1 2 Herman, E.S., and Chomsky, N. (1988). Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (3rd ed.). New York: New York Pantheon Books. ISBN   0-375-71449-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  33. ↑ Park, Chang Sup (2019-05-27). "Learning Politics From Social Media: Interconnection of Social Media Use for Political News and Political Issue and Process Knowledge". Communication Studies. 70 (3): 253–276. doi:10.1080/10510974.2019.1581627. ISSN   1051-0974. S2CID   151230215.
  34. ↑ Foster, Steven (2010). Political communication. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN   978-0-7486-3114-8. OCLC   650304204.
  35. ↑ Enli, Gunn (2017). "Twitter as arena for the authentic outsider: exploring the social media campaigns of Trump and Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election". European Journal of Communication. 32 (1): 50–61. doi:10.1177/0267323116682802. hdl: 10852/55266 . S2CID   149265798.
  36. ↑ Kreiss, Daniel (2016). "Seizing the moment: The presidential campaigns' use of Twitter during the 2012 electoral cycle". New Media & Society. 18 (8): 1473–1490. doi:10.1177/1461444814562445. S2CID   206728421.
  37. ↑ Wei, Ran; Xu, Larry Zhiming (2019). "New Media and Politics: A Synopsis of Theories, Issues, and Research". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.104. ISBN   9780190228613.
  38. ↑ Freelon, D., & Wells, C. (2020). Disinformation as Political Communication. Political Communication, 37(2), 145–156. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2020.1723755
  39. ↑ Graber, Doris A.; Dunaway, Johanna (2017-07-20). Mass Media and American Politics. CQ Press. ISBN   9781506340227.
  40. ↑ Weeks, Brian E.; Ardèvol-Abreu, Alberto; Gil de Zúñiga, Homero (2015-12-31). "Online Influence? Social Media Use, Opinion Leadership, and Political Persuasion". International Journal of Public Opinion Research. 29 (2): edv050. doi: 10.1093/ijpor/edv050 . ISSN   0954-2892.
  41. ↑ "Voter turnout data for Australia (Parliamentary) | Voter Turnout | International IDEA". Archived from the original on 2016-03-06. Retrieved 2016-06-10.
  42. ↑ "Political Campaign and Social Media". Political Marketing. Archived from the original on 2014-01-16. Retrieved 2014-01-16.
  43. ↑ "Benefits of Social Media for Business | the Social Savior". 28 November 2015.
  44. ↑ Cision (2012). Journalists Views and Usage of Social Media. http://mb.cision.com/Public/329/9316712/8978ed4b0993062c.pdf
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.