European Political Communication Cultures and Democracy

Abstract

The changes in political communication during the last half-century have been intense. The emergence of television offered direct access to the living room, giving rise to new opportunities for politicians and journalists to perform and to criticize. New techniques for campaigning were developed, occasionally placing spin-doctors in the driver’s seat and offering new platforms for spokespersons and pundits. Living-room politics (Morley, 1986) became a battleground for not only politicians but also the media. Among the responses by printing houses to the new competition from electronic media were the tabloidization of the press, followed by efforts toward media convergence to reconquer parts of the expanding mediascape. These measures dramatically influenced the conditions for production and content of political messages. The speed of the dissemination increased immensely, as did the reach of news and political information, while at the same time the new media landscape offered lacunas for diversification. Against this background the authors of this volume outlined a broad comparative study of political communication culture, covering nine European countries. We asked 2,500 key actors about their attitudes underlying political communication today.