Political Communication and Journalism (775334005Y)
Institution
Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)
Study notes containing all the material from lectures & important materials from the book and literature needed for the Political Communication & Journalism exam (year 2). You can use them to complement with your own notes.
Course grade = 8.3.
Also includes illustrations from theories seen in...
Political Communication and Journalism (775334005Y)
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1. Political Communication: Introduction
1.1. Political Communication
• Political communication = the interactions between
politics, media and the public.
• Deals with the relationship between (1) political actors,
(2) public & (3) media / journalists.
• Research is driven by the question: who shapes these relationships, and ultimately who
controls whom?
• We must focus on power relations.
• There is limited media attention, thus politicians ght for it.
A. Media Functions
What do we expect from media?
• (Free) media as fourth estate – In democracies, we want free media
independent from the state power (executive branch )
• Functions of media in Democratic society:
(1) Information – monitoring & inform the citizens (audience) what is happening in society.
(2) Education – explaining what events and facts mean for people to understanding them.
(3) Platform – Place where people exchange of ideas & ideas meet (e.g. virtual media, social
media) → Public sphere – people can discuss opinions, arguments and positions in order to reach
a consensus.
(4) Watchdog – Control over politics (governments and companies), publicity for what politics
does (wrong) – we expect journalists to be on top of issues & investigate politicians (e.g.
corruption scandals)
(5) Channel – Political, ideological opinions needs to nd their way to the people. Organizations
have the right and need to communicate w/ citizens (now is more direct).
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,B. What do we expect from journalists?
• Role conceptions (David Weaver) = several can happen at the same time.
• What journalists think their tasks/ responsibilities are.
• They can have several role conceptions at the same time
1. Disseminator of info = journalists provide info about events, issues.
• Fast information dissemination and veri cation of facts.
• Example = Peruvian journalist Mavila Huertas informing about electoral campaigns on TV
in Canal N.
2. Interpreter (explaining) = makes info clearer to an audience
• Make the news come alive for audience in the same way as the reporter = make sense of
events.
• Example = Peruvian journalist Marco Sifuentes informing about the protests in Ica
from agriculture complaining about working conditions in Peru in his channel “La
Encerrona”.
• They provide analyze + interpret complex issues + investigate government claims.
3. Adversarial (vs. politicians and businesses) = watchdog of media – critical about government
or companies.
• Adopting a stance of opposition + critical style in order to expose perceived wrongdoings
= politician adversary of journalist
• Example = Peruvian journalist Rosa Maria Palacios remaining critical about
measures to reopen malls by Martin Vizcarra in her channel “Sin Guion”.
4. Populist mobilizer – mobilize people = actively making people engage
in society and make their voices out + put things on the agenda + take
positions and make issues appear on agenda.
• Giving a voice to ‘ordinary’ citizens and providing entertainment.
• Example = Peruvian journalist Marco Sifuentes informing about
the protests in Lima for the illegal impeachment of Martin Vizcarra in Peru in his
channel “La Encerrona”.
• Example = Jon Oliver = Uygurs china.
1.2. US Situation about News & Journalism Bennett
• Free market is not delivering news as they should.
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,• To take the quality of news reporting under control, we must nd ways to support journalism
for it survive.
• Low interest in media or politics, little to no political knowledge.
• There are problems everywhere:
▪ Little money
▪ Distrust in the media
▪ Selective exposure
▪ Little trust in politics
1.3. Negative Campaigning
• Negative campaigning (a.k.a. attack politics or mudslinging) = characteristic of the message
• The ‘tone’ of the message (direction of message)
• Negative = attack or criticism against the opponents programs, ideas, policies,
record, … (decrease opponents support)
• Positive = promotion of one’s programs, ideas, policies, record… (increase your
support)
• BUT It is not necessarily so extreme.
• Purpose: Provide electoral bene ts:
• Undermining rivals’ competence evaluations
• Demobilizing support for the targeted politician or party
• Mobilizing supporters
• Persuading undecided and risk-averse voters to cast their vote for the ‘lesser evi’l.
• Two types:
1. Policy Attacks = they do not attack the opponent on his character, but in
something they did wrong (e.g. policies)
2. Character Attacks = they attack the opponent on his character, not his policies or
wrongdoings.
• When is a campaign negative?
• Depends on the proportion of negative messages (whether + positive or + negative
messages in the campaign).
• Negativity =
• in the eye of the beholder – intensity of negativity should be taken into
account as well.
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, • People perceive negativity in di erent ways
• People tend to evaluate intensity of attack
• Stronger attack = seen as worse/ more negative
• BUT def. of negative campaigning is perceived in extremes =
either is or not an attack.
• Ex: Shows distribution of all answers – we tend to evaluate the
intensity of the attack.
• has a clear normative de cit: votes dislike negativity.
• BUT Currently not the most negative campaign ever in the US (according to
US citizens).
• US 2020 Not the most interesting campaign
• Haselmayer et al. (2019) =
• Negative campaigning in uences political support + —> used to gain media
attention.
• Media like negativity (part of media logic) = negative campaigning easily gets
attention
• Traditional media still important source of info.
• Attention needed by political actors to convey their campaign
messages to broad public.
• Opportunity for less powerful politicians (especially for rank-and-
le politicians like MPs)
• News value = negativity = factor more likely to become news.
• Best NOT to attack on your own best issues, but on issues owned by the target.
• Attack them on their best issue – weaken them.
• Issue-ownership = when a political actor or party is considered as best suitable to
deal w/ certain issue (e.g. a green party about the environment).
• More media attention probably better for those issues owned by the target
than your own.
• Parties address these issues important to audiences.
A. Negative campaigning in US
• Occurs often in the US = most ads are negative.
• Ex: Heil Trump
• Vali & Nai (2020): Negative campaigning is not just done in the US, but worldwide = candidate
pro le + context matters (moderates).
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