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Summary political communication and journalism
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Summary political communication and journalism - mainly lectures and weekly readings
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Week 1What is political communication?
Political Communication “the interactions between politics, media and the public.” The
relationship between politics and the public is an indirect one, mediated via the media.
This means that the media limits and shapes the way information is transmitted. This is the
case for every aspect of the media landscape that is being challenged by new forms of
content production and distribution that, now, involve more audience participation.
The relationship between politics, the media and the public are a power relationship, where one
actor constantly expects something from the other.
The media serves almost as a fourth estate, being the way citizens receive the information
about what is happening in the other three branches (Judiciary, Executive, and Legislative).
The media has 5 main fictions in a democratic state:
1. Information monitoring and inform the citizens
2. Education to explain what events and facts mean to the public
3. Platform function to severe as a public sphere where ideas are exchanged. Exchange of
ideas Public sphere public debate
4. Watchdog function To critically analyze the actions of politicians. Control over politics,
publicity for what politics does (wrong)
5. Channel function To communicate politician and ideological opinions to the public.
Political, ideological opinions need to find their way to the people
What is the difference between the platform function and channel function?
- The platform function is about a horizontal process, so exposing an exchange of ideas from
citizens to citizens
- The channel function is about a vertical process, so exposing an exchange of ideas from
political actors to the public
What are the four roles of journalists?
Role conceptions (David Weaver):
1. Information disseminator of information, informing the citizens
2. Interpreter explaining what the information means
3. Adversarial primarily, expose wrongdoing of the elites
a. Has to do with putting business and politicians in check
b. Politicians and businesses are central places where power is located (influential and
economic power)
c. Journalists must give counterweight to these powers. This role relates to the
watchdog function of media (being critical of these powerful factors)
4. Populist mobilizer everybody in society is reached, involved, gets news, and can speak
out
a. Usually, only the stories of the power become dominant, but it is the role of the
journalist to give a voice to all, making sure other stories are told
b. Journalists must seek these stories among the public – which are harder to find but
are equally as important to be shared.
What are the threats to the journalists performing these functions?
1. Commercialism Commercialism leads to decreased news quality – as follows from the
basics of media logic, that prioritizes sales (what the public wants) over quality (what the
public needs).
, 2. Political actors Political actors are (re)gaining control over media content, leading to a
lack of pluralism and media independence.
3. "Safe" routines Journalists can get stuck in safe routines, instead of actively investigating
to provide the information the public needs.
4. Unwillingness of the audience The audience can be unwilling or unable to process the
information provided by the journalists or distinguish news from misinformation.
1. Commercialism as a threat
- Decreased news media quality due to commercialization of information
o The first threat shows a shift from the normative to the commercial pole
- Commercialization is about maximizing the profit being the main goal of news companies
maximizing profit – maximizing audiences
o To maximize audiences, sensational news elements are used
Sensationalism News coverage that provokes the senses and emotions of
audience members, thus attracting the attention of a larger audience. The
inclusion of these sensational events in news makes traditional news look,
more and more, like entertainment news (because it is what sells., what
attracts more viewers/readers).
- Distinction between what the public needs to know and what the public wants to know
o Need to know part of normative pole
o Want to know part of the commercial pole
Maximize profits leads to lower quality of news: How does this work?
People can easily get news (commodity) for free, as there are countless online news sources that
offer access to news with no additional costs or fees.
If the audience can get the same piece of information for free, they will, and this completely
changes the business model of traditional journalism, which has always been paid. After all
journalists need to be paid for their job. However, this model is failing.
Consequence:
o budget cuts
o decreasing investments in quality journalism
o media concentration
o market logic takes over
o increased competition for attention of the audience and advertisement revenues.
Quantity and variety:
This change in business model also leads to a misleading conception of the quantity and variety of
news available. The conception that we are now experiencing information abundance is partly
misleading. The Pew project for Excellence in Journalism on News Ecosystem (2010) revealed that:
1.95% of the news can be traced back to traditional media outlets (paid) 2. In the last 10
years, there are 32% less stories, and 73% less in the last 20 years.
What does this mean?
All the news and information shared on social media (un-traditional media) is simply a copy of what
was already published on traditional media outlets. When we trace back the sources of this
(apparent) abundance of information, we find that they are all repeated news coming from the same
sources what can be (wrongfully) interpreted as an abundance of a big variety of information, is,
repeated content.
Why is this a problem?
,If all the information is, coming from traditional news, and traditional news is losing money because
of this shift in the business model where free news is easily accessible, then, we are losing in both
quantity and quality of information. This is a threat to pluralism!
When pluralism is threatened, the following functions of media are also threatened:
1. Information
2. Education
3. Platform
4. Watchdog
There are, however, different ways that the government can support journalism to increase
pluralism. Solutions towards increasing pluralism
1. Reducing taxes for small newspapers.
2. Incentives for advertising to be in small newspapers.
3. Media accountability systems.
4. Facilitate printing and distribution of newspapers.
2. Control of politicians as a threat
When the government has control over media content:
- There is a lack of independence of media
- Lack of internal and external pluralism
What can this be?
- Censorship
- State broadcasters
- Political decision over the newsroom
- Selective government advertisements
Which functions are threatened?
- Information the audience not being able/willing to process the information provided. Or
distinguish news form misinformation
- Education threatened due to a possible bias in information
- Platform function highly threatened due to the lack of pluralism
- Watchdog function highlight threatened as journalists do not have the freedom to be
critical of political actors
- Channel function threatened for non-government political group
Solutions?
- Ensuring press independence and freedom
- Implementing media accountability systems
- Having a broad definition of media to grant extra media freedom – differentiating between
negative press freedom and positive press freedom
3. Journalists getting stuck into safe routines
Instead of providing the information the public needs. Journalists focus on the elite opinions. If elites
agree, no other opinions are presented. It is easier and more convenient to find, as well as risk –
avoidance.
This leads to a decrease in quality, representativeness and is less informative. Platform and
watchdog function are threatened.
Is there a solution?
, Follow a different approach to journalism, be more critical and go the extra mile to create a more
well-rounded story.
4. Unwillingness of the audience
The audience not being able/willing to process the information provided or distinguish news from
misinformation.
Video malaise theory
- Watching television has negative effects on the public leading to cynicism
a. low trust in political institutions
b. low sense of “political efficacy”
- Rely on TV instead of newspaper, can lead to less information processing because it’s quick,
fast, and often more sensational, leads to people having more negative perceptions of
politics
Criticism to media malaise theory
Positive effects of media content are possible. Some, rather sensational elements can be good to
some extent, to reach more people. Journalists should focus on the audience as citizens, and can try
to address them all
Which functions are threatened?
Platform, education, and channel.
The channel function is threatened because of the possible creation of filter bubbles that this can
cause. This means that people might believe that most of the population agrees with their own
ideologies, when, in fact, that is not the case. With this, when a politician does not conform to this
mistaken "majority opinion", people might create negative attitudes towards politics though these
conceptions are based on the incorrect assumption that what you think is what the majority thinks.
Solutions: Rebuilding trust in media, avoiding filter bubbles and echo chambers, political satire,
regulations for social media
Four phases of mediatization
Mediatization implies a process through which core elements of a social and cultural activity
assume media form. The interplay between media logic and political logic is crucial.
Media logic Media logic is a process through which media presents and transmits information.
Media formats create a framework or a perspective that is used to present as well as interpret
phenomena. Media logic can be taken to mean the dominance in societal processes of the news
values and the storytelling techniques the media use to capture people's attention. Storytelling
techniques include simplification, polarization, intensification, personalization, visualization,
stereotyping, and the framing of politics as a strategic game or a horse race.
Political logic implies that politics are about collective and authoritative decision-making as well
as the implementation of political decisions. Political communication can be, to a great extent,
governed by:
1. media logic, meaning that the requirements of the media shape how political
communication is played out, covered, and understood by the people.
2. political logic, meaning that the needs of the political system and institutions shape how
political communication is played out, covered, and understood by the people. The former
implies that the media are commercial organizations while the latter requires the media to
be democratic institutions with moral obligations to the society.
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