The Politician as a Player: Political Strategic Communication as a Play

Abstract

Approaches to post-truth society describe a shift in societies towards non-binding communication. There are at least two problem inherent to these approaches. On the one hand, there is no plausible explanation as to why a shift from a truth-based to a post-truth society is now apparent. On the other hand, the blanket assumption that the truth is completely unimportant today is not plausible either. This is the starting point for this article. We begin with a concept frequently found in journalistic descriptions: politics as a play and politicians as players. A theoretical approach is presented that conceives political strategic communication as a play. Elaborating on this, the acceptance of lies and bullshit is the result of political self-staging. To this end, the theory of strategic communication plays based on Bateson and Goffman will be presented and developed further into staging and truth plays in politics. The proposition: strategic political communication is increasingly – but not always – being played and perceived as a play in which the entertainment character is more important than the binding nature of the staging and the statements.