scholarly journals Political communication in and about crises – Introduction to the Thematic Section

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Metag ◽  
Caroline Dalmus
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Communication Research ◽  
Political Organizations ◽  
Modern Life ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
Political Crises ◽  
Thematic Section ◽  
The Subject

The financial crisis in Europe and the United States, the war in Syria, the refugee crisis, and terrorist attacks – crises seem to permeate everyday life and make headlines. Crisis as a central, persistent element of modern life has been the subject of scholarly discussions in various disciplines. Political communication research approaches crisis from two different angles. First, political crisis communication research deals with communication about political crises, such as political upheavals, protests, and subversions of governments and presidents. One of the most recent examples of a political crisis comes from Venezuela, where political changes and problems, such as corruption and undemocratic governance, have brought about economic problems (hyperinflation), a rising crime rate, hunger, and disease. Second, many other types of crises involve political communication because they also lead to policy reactions or at least discussion on their political aspects. For example, natural disasters typically provoke public discussion on the roles of political organizations and actors before, during, and after these disasters and the consequences for policy.

The disinformation order: Disruptive communication and the decline of democratic institutions

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
W Lance Bennett ◽  
Steven Livingston
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
The United States ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
Communication Research ◽  
False Information ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Institutional Legitimacy ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Mainstream Press ◽  
Official Information

Many democratic nations are experiencing increased levels of false information circulating through social media and political websites that mimic journalism formats. In many cases, this disinformation is associated with the efforts of movements and parties on the radical right to mobilize supporters against centre parties and the mainstream press that carries their messages. The spread of disinformation can be traced to growing legitimacy problems in many democracies. Declining citizen confidence in institutions undermines the credibility of official information in the news and opens publics to alternative information sources. Those sources are often associated with both nationalist (primarily radical right) and foreign (commonly Russian) strategies to undermine institutional legitimacy and destabilize centre parties, governments and elections. The Brexit campaign in the United Kingdom and the election of Donald Trump in the United States are among the most prominent examples of disinformation campaigns intended to disrupt normal democratic order, but many other nations display signs of disinformation and democratic disruption. The origins of these problems and their implications for political communication research are explored.

scholarly journals Features of Discursive Structures in Political Communication

2021 ◽  
pp. 38-50
Author(s):  
Vyacheslav D. Shevchenko ◽  
Nina A. Tribunskaya
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
The United States ◽  
Media Discourse ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
Security Discourse ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Subject ◽  
High Degree

This article is devoted to the study of the discursive structures of political texts published on Twitter of the President of the United States. The material of the study was the statements of Donald Trump and Joe Biden during the period from November 1, 2019 to August 31, 2021. Its multimillion audience of subscribers makes Twitter a powerful political tool with the ability to influence public opinion. The purpose of this article is to identify the discursive structures arising in political communication as a result of the actualization of the category of discursive heterogeneity, which includes elements of interdiscursiveness and polydiscursiveness. The authors use various methods: descriptive, contextual analysis, comparative, methods of observation, content analysis and discourse analysis. Using the linguistic concept of the American scientist D. Himes S-P-E-A-K-I-N-G, the analysis of the situation components Setting and scene, Participants, Ends, Act Sequence, Key, Instrumentalities, Norms, Genre is carried out. Being a part of the media discourse and demonstrating the features of the Internet genre, the written messages of politicians are laconic, expressive, and tend to economize on linguistic means. The same communicants, depending on the context of utterances, become participants in different types of discourses. The study analyzes the foreign and domestic political discourses, the security discourse, as well as a number of accompanying special discourses that constitute political communication. The choice of the subject matter of the messages is due to the high degree of importance of issues of foreign and domestic policy, as well as stability and security.

scholarly journals Peculiarities of Modern Nationalist Messages in Online Political Communication: The Analyses of Donald Trump’s and Jair Bolsonaro’s Election Campaigns

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 350
Author(s):  
Olga V. Novoselova
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
The United States ◽  
Communication Patterns ◽  
Election Campaigns ◽  
Communication Research ◽  
Political Leaders

As digitalized election campaigns are a new phenomenon, there are almost no studies defining the peculiarities of modern nationalist messages in online political communication research. This article seeks to identify some communication patterns and recent innovations in delivering online nationalist messages. These patterns are regarded in conflation with nationalist and populist approaches by political leaders during their digital election campaigns. The literature review approach to making generalizations is chosen to explore the articulation of nationalist and populist messages during Donald Trump’s (The United States), and Jair Bolsonaro’s (Brazil) election campaigns. Overall, the study boils down to an analysis of the populist and nationalist signifiers in social media posts, and the degree to which their structures of meaning revolve around the vertical down/up or the horizontal in/out axis. As a result, some common traits of modern nationalist messages in online political communication are identified and future areas of research are proposed.

scholarly journals Political communication in and about crises. Potentials of a fragmented field

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-152
Author(s):  
Linards Udris
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Communication Research ◽  
Political Crises ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Oriented Research

While there is growing interest in political crises in political communication research, crisis has not yet become a meaningful concept. Also, research tends to be reactive, which is suggested by an analysis of when and how the “crisis” label occurred in Swiss media from 2000 to 2018 and how recent scholarship examines political crises. This commentary gives an overview of different research areas within this fragmented “crisis” field and discusses a nuanced concept of crises that is more sensitive to the causes and dynamics of communicatively constructed crises on the macro level. It argues that a more systematic, more comparative and more macro-oriented research on political crises will help reduce the reactive nature of the field and enhance its public relevance.

scholarly journals The Populist Political Communication Style in Action: Podemos’s Issues and Functions on Twitter During the 2016 Spanish General Election

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (9) ◽  
pp. 986-1001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreu Casero-Ripollés ◽  
Marçal Sintes-Olivella ◽  
Pere Franch
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Political Party ◽  
The United States ◽  
Communication Style ◽  
Digital Environment ◽  
The People ◽  
Great Relevance ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Main Components

Populism is a phenomenon that has been acquiring great relevance over recent years in the United States and Europe. Literature on the subject has identified the existence of a populist style that also affects political communication. The aim of this article is to analyze the structure of issues and the functions of messages circulated by a populist party in order to determine the presence and incidence of this style’s main components. The methodology is based on a quantitative analysis of the content of the Twitter profiles of the Spanish political party Podemos and its leader, Pablo Iglesias, during the 2016 Spanish elections. Totally, 2,612 tweets were analyzed. The results allow the identification of a strategy of complementarity, which appears as a new component in the communication style of populism in the digital environment. Podemos is also seen to lean toward antielitism and its leader toward the communicative construction of “the people.”

scholarly journals The Impact of Sound-Bite Journalism on Public Argument

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eike Mark Rinke
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Television News ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Justification ◽  
Communication Research ◽  
Political Position ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Public Argument ◽  
The Impact

The rise of sound-bite news is one of the most widely bemoaned findings in political communication research. Yet, the detrimental effects of this trend have been more assumed than demonstrated. This study examines one consequence of sound-bite journalism: the creation of incomplete argument, in which speakers presenting their political position in the news do not also justify it. Drawing on data about television news in Germany, Russia, and the United States, it shows that shrinking sound bites consistently reduce the probability of opinion justification across widely differing national contexts. Sound-bite journalism emerges as harmful to television news' ability to produce public justification.

The Indian Renaissance, 1960–2000

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Warrior
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Native American ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Social Health ◽  
Modern Life ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Many

From the stunning upset victory of Lakota runner Billy Mills at the 1964 Olympics to the emergence of Native American filmmaking and the rise of tribal casino economies, the last four decades of the twentieth century witnessed unprecedented changes to the lives of Native individuals and communities. The many positive developments, however, exist alongside chronic and persistent social, health, and economic problems that continue to leave Native Americans behind others in the United States. Indeed, the cruel irony of increased opportunity has been the parallel erosion of Native cultural and political life in the face of the onslaught of modern life.

scholarly journals Political Knowledge

Communication ◽  
2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsay Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
The United States ◽  
Democratic Society ◽  
Political Discussion ◽  
Communication Research ◽  
Political Sophistication ◽  
Structural Relationships ◽  
Political Expertise ◽  
The Relationship

Political knowledge is one of the primary variables in political communication research. In the United States, as well as other democratic nations, the study of political knowledge is rooted in democratic theory, which suggests that citizens should be informed if they are to participate in a democratic society. Political knowledge is also sometimes referred to as political sophistication or political expertise, but knowledge is generally defined as holding correct information—whether that is civic, issue, or candidate information, or the structural relationships among cognitions. Scholars often examine political knowledge as a dependent variable—for example, by examining media effects on political knowledge—but knowledge can also be examined as a predictor, moderator, or mediator in a variety of communication relationships. In this sense, political knowledge may lead to political discussion, or it may moderate the relationship between media use and political participation. However, just as general knowledge cannot be directly measured—rather, it is assessed via test scores or grades—political knowledge is directly immeasurable. In other words, the content of political knowledge, generally, cannot be fully captured in a series of test questions. For that reason, scholars often conceptualize political knowledge in varying ways. However, scholars have come to agree on some measures of political knowledge as good representations of the information citizens must have to participate fully in a democratic society.

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