Conclusion

Author(s):  
Ben Epstein

This chapter summarizes the key takeaways from the book and the utility of the political communication cycle (PCC) overall. Technological changes and political contexts matter a great deal in the process of political communication change, but nothing is as consequential as the political choices that political actors and organizations make. These behavioral motivations explain much of the difference in innovativeness over time between different types of organizations, like the campaigns, social movements, and interest groups detailed in chapters 5 through 7. The conclusion applies these historical lessons to the current status of political communication, clarifying where we now are in the recurring cycle, and explaining why our position within the stabilization phase matters for political actors and consumers of political communication alike. Finally, this chapter sketches three possible paths forward and highlights related areas that could become subjects of future studies.

Author(s):  
Ben Epstein

The Only Constant Is Change presents and tests the political communication cycle (PCC), a model describing how political actors and organizations make decisions about if, how, and when to innovate their political communication practices. Generally speaking, political communication goals have remained largely stable over time, but the strategies used to accomplish these goals have changed a great deal. The PCC describes the recurring process of political communication innovation through American political history. This model incorporates the technological, political, and behavioral factors influencing how and when changes in political communication activity take place. The PCC is made up of three phases that also serve as an organizational structure for the book. First is the technological imperative, which focuses on how new information and communications technologies (ICT) are developed and what types of ICTs may be more or less likely to be used to innovate political communication. Next, the political choice phase incorporates the behavioral processes embedded in how different types of actors choose whether to innovate or not. This phase is the most critical and is analyzed through case studies evaluating how campaigns, social movements, and interest groups have or have not changed their political communication activities over time. Finally, the stabilization phase encompasses the process of how once innovative techniques become the new status quo though the establishment of new norms, regulations, and institutions. The book explores these changes through historical and contemporary analysis, which offers important context and tools to understand political communication through history and today.


Author(s):  
Ben Epstein

This chapter shifts the focus to the third and final stabilization phase of the political communication cycle (PCC). During the stabilization phase, a new political communication order (PCO) takes shape through the building of norms, institutions, and regulations that serve to fix the newly established status quo in place. This status quo occurs when formerly innovative political communication activities become mundane, yet remain powerful. Much of the chapter details the pattern of communication regulation and institution construction over time. In particular, this chapter explores the instructive similarities and key differences between the regulation of radio and the internet, which offers important perspectives on the significance of our current place in the PCC and the consequences of choices that will be made over the next few years.


Author(s):  
Cristina Cirtita-Buzoianu

This paper aims to analyze the image and identity of political actors during an electoral campaign, as these two elements are defining for political marketing in attracting and convincing voters. With that in mind we will monitor the image of the two candidates for the position of mayor in the 2012 electoral campaign in Bacău, as it appeared in the written local press. The analysis of the two politicians will be made from the perspective of two pre-established image indicators: the political and the human dimensions. Each of the two dimensions has sub indicators pre-established in order to validate the general mediatized image of the candidate. Regarding the political dimension we will measure the sub indicators: political communication, attitude towards corruption, interest for civil problems, the ability to negotiate and political project, while the human dimension has the following sub indicators: faith, empathy, morality, honesty, charisma, consistency and leadership. Thus, we will try to identify if there are major differences between the two dimensions, for the two candidates, from a quantitative as well as a qualitative perspective.


Author(s):  
Christopher F. Karpowitz

A powerful tool for content analysis, DICTION allows scholars to illuminate the ideas, perspectives, and linguistic tendencies of a wide variety of political actors. At its best, a tool like DICTION allows scholars not just to describe the features of political language, but also to analyze the causes and the consequences those features in ways that advance our understanding political communication more broadly. Effective analysis involves helping academic audiences understand what the measures being used mean, how the results relate to broader theoretical constructs, and the extent to which findings reveal something important about the political world. This involves exploring both the causes and the consequences of linguistic choices, including by attending closely to how those texts are received by their intended audiences. In this chapter, the authors review ways in which DICTION has been used and might be used to better understand the role of political leadership, the meaning of democracy, and the effects of political language on the political behavior of ordinary citizens.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1222-1236
Author(s):  
Flaminia Saccà

In the last decade, Italy has gone through some deep changes in the political sphere. The fall of the Berlin Wall had forced political parties from opposite sides to re-organize themselves: their targets, ideologies and projects. At the same time, these historical events have been shortly followed by a major national bribe scandal that invested the main political leaders who had governed the Country for half a century. As a result, the last turn of the past Millennium has left a strongly politicized Country with no acknowledged leaders, no clear ideologies, no traditional, recognizable parties. It is in those years that Berlusconi's new venture gained votes and success. The fracture between political organizations, leaders and citizens though, became unhealable. The younger generations seemed to be the ones who suffered the most from political apathy or, worse, distrust. So we wanted to investigate who were the young politicians who, in these times of crises, had chosen politics as an important part of their lives. We have carried out two different surveys in different years and we found that political parties were changing deeply and radically. That their role in the political socialization of young political actors had become very thin. That candidates began to be chosen amongst the affluent few or, at least, amongst those whose personal fame and social/professional/family network would guarantee their party at least a dowry of votes that could make the difference in times of elections. But this method would not guarantee cohesion nor government stability.


Author(s):  
Güliz Uluç ◽  
Mehmet Yilmaz ◽  
Umit Isikdag

Internet forums and weblogs have been institutionalized as an integral part of the political communication system. Political candidates, interest groups, and other political actors increasingly employ the Internet as a communication tool. Weblogs and online discussion forums are recognized as new democratic meeting places. This chapter investigates the role of political blogs and forums in the 2007 presidential election in Turkey and focuses on the interaction between political actors and the citizens. The content of 270 top-rated blogs and 15 discussion forums posted between April and September of 2007 was analyzed. The findings indicate that blogs and forums function as enablers of political dialogue and facilitate political participation and civic interaction. The conclusion is drawn that blogs and forums have emerged as innovative modes of political communication in Turkey resulting in a broad interchange of diverse political opinions in the political arena.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-72
Author(s):  
Indra Setia Bakti ◽  
Khairul Amin

As a newcomer, the Perindo Party seeks to implement a specific strategy in order to compete with other parties that have already existed in the Indonesian political contestation. One of these is charity show programs. The high rating and concern societies watching the lives of poor people in various charity programs show besides creating profits also become a means of political communication. When political actors control the media, it is clear that there are interests also communicated, including the political powers of the funnel to get support from voters. When the Perindo Party is declared, the "scent" that HT and his party would use the media under their control is very clear. These signals can also be observed from the dominance of HT’s trusted people in the MNC Group in the composition of the Central Management Board Center, the Assembly of the Union Party and the court of Perindo party. That mean a charity program not only gives a very big business profit, but also the political media communication, enhance social branding in front of audiences, and build a base of loyal voters from poor family beneficiaries. To finishing this paper, the author uses a descriptive qualitative approach. The data in this article sourced from observations, studies of literature, and other sources considered relevant and then analyzed by the exchange theory of Peter Blau.


Author(s):  
Nur Ainiyah

This study aims to show how the role of women's political communication in the city of santri (a student in Islamic boarding school) in facing political power that is dominated by men in Situbondo. It becomes a development in women's political communication in a practical and scientific manner. The reality of the political climate in Situbondo is inseparable from the influence of the kyai as religious and cultural figures, so each of his political perceptions and views certainly has its own perspective and far from gender justice. Consequently, this affects the political space for female santri in Situbondo. In this research, building theoretical interconnections from building theoretical frameworks used such as political communication, gender analysis and phenomenology, related to the focus of research. With a qualitative-explorative research approach, several steps in the procedure of collecting observational data, interviews and documentation are applied consistently and continuously. The results of the research are firstly Santri woman has a political outlook with the benefit of minimizing conflict; secondly cultural barriers as a medium of political communication are effectively overcome by female santri. Besides, female santri tend to override political choices by preferring the political choices of the figures they envision for benefit purposes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-170
Author(s):  
Darya I. Judina ◽  
◽  
Sergei A. Ivanov ◽  

The Internet as a special space for political activity and political communication is becoming more and more attractive to political actors. The intensification of political activity on the Internet leads to the increase of researchers’ interest. One of the prominent areas of this research is the analysis of the efficiency of communication strategies used by politically oriented communities on the Internet. The results of such assessment contribute to, in particular, characterizing the level and features of the political engagement of Internet users into political processes. To study these processes, a telephone survey of residents of St. Petersburg was conducted. St. Petersburg was chosen because it is one of the largest cities in Russia with high Internet coverage and a high level of political activity compared to other regions. The results showed that politically oriented communities effectively implement primary communication strategies — information and presentation. More than two-thirds of politically active Internet users in St. Petersburg noted that visiting the relevant resources helped them to understand the political situation, to define their attitude toward parties, politicians, social movements and organizations. At the same time, the strategy of supporting political identification has not yet worked for the majority of users. Perhaps this is a consequence of the fact that the majority of St. Petersburg citizens have not yet found appropriate political leaders and organizations. The authors found that the majority of Internet users display an interest in politics permanently, and not only during the pre-election period. The hypothesis that one of the factors of an efficient strategy of politically oriented communities is emphasizing anti-power positions was confirmed. The survey results also confirmed the high level of opposition views among Internet users.


2019 ◽  
pp. 983-1004
Author(s):  
Alem Maksuti ◽  
Tomaž Deželan

The daily interaction between political parties and voters is a driving force in election campaigns and can influence their outcomes. The theory of campaign intensity holds that the timing of message delivery in an election campaign is a key component of the strategies used by political actors. However, this theory also warns political actors to be cautious about the timing of different types of messages sent during the election campaign. Our objective is to examine the intensity and types of messages Slovenian political actors communicated through Twitter during different stages in the 2014 national election campaign. Our study conducts a content analysis of 7,113 tweets posted during the last four weeks of the official election campaign. It includes 17 official accounts of Slovenian parties, party leaders, and influential party twitterians. The results indicated that the stage of the campaign and the differences between established and fringe political parties significantly influenced the intensity of Twitter communications during the study period. The results also revealed that the political actors tweeted different types of political messages (e.g., to inform and to persuade voters) during different stages of the campaign.


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