Conclusion: Comparing across Space and Time — Challenges and Achievements in Political Communication Research

Abstract

There has been a trend lately for taking stock of comparative political communication in handbooks, encyclopaedias, and scientific journals (Norris, 2009; Esser and Hanitzsch, 2012; Mancini and Hallin, 2012; Pfetsch and Esser, 2014). Most discussions stress the vivid emergence and improving quality of comparative studies. However, while the last ten years have seen a growing number of excellent scholars and eminent comparative studies, this does not necessarily mean that the comparative approach has fulfilled its promise completely. On the contrary, comparative research still faces hurdles in order to achieve its aspiration to go beyond mere descrip- tion and generate explanatory knowledge of how political communication works. Comparing the various aspects of political communication only reveals further complexities and risks of comparative research. Comparing across space and time allows for a more detailed and diverse picture, but also reveals contradictions, dilemmas, and unintended effects of political communication, since modern technology has created tremendous social and political changes in the substance, dynamics, and contexts of commu- nication. In this volume, scholars of comparative political communication accept the challenges to well-established comparative techniques, which are demonstrated impressively through their reflections and their writings, their designs and methods.