THE ROLE OF MASS MEDIA IN THE FORMATION OF POLITICAL WORLDVIEW AND TRANSFORMATION OF THE ELECTORAL STRATEGIES OF POLITICAL PARTIES OF AUSTRIA

Abstract

Problem setting. Evolution of media led to the fact that in addition to their main functions, they began to perform certain functions of political parties, namely political socialization and mobilization. Therefore, one of the central places in the election campaigns ofpolitical parties is occupied by the media, and their participation acts as an independent institution of democracy. The Austrian media system represents special model of functioning of media which has an impact, both on political outlook of the Austrians, and on transformation of the electoral strategies ofpolitical parties of Austria. Recent research and publications analysis. The topic of the influence of the media on political orientations of electorate, political communication and strategies became a studying subject for scientists. (D. Dubov, D. Farrell, N. Garmash, O. Gruber, K. Kholodkovsky, Z. Komilova, M. Lettner, S. Lisova, A. Nazarbetova, P. Norris, F. Plasser, G. Plasser, P. Ulram and other). Paper objective. The article analyzes the stages of the evolution of election campaigns and the development of a political communication system in the Republic of Austria. The purpose of the article is to show, with the example of the evolution of the Austrian media system, its influence on the transformation of the political world outlook and electoral strategies of the Austrian political parties. Paper main body. A modern democratic society needs politics and political mass media. On the other hand, politics needs the society itself (voters), which, in turn, is sufficiently achieved only through the media. In the development of the political communication system in Austria allocate three stages (according to F. Plasser and P. Ulram): 1) between 1945 and the middle of the 60th of the 20th century - «domination ofparty with the newspaper»; 2) the middle of the 60th - the beginning of the 90th of the 20th century - «television» phase; 3) since the beginning of the 1990th years till today - «multimedia diversity». Thus, the perception ofpolitics occurs through various media channels, which leads to the fragmentation of political communication. Owing to social changes and technical progress, the struggle to retain their dominant position in the Austrian party system forces political parties to look for new methods to attract the electorate, hence their election campaigns become more professional. Analysis of election campaigns in the period 2006-2017 allows you to highlight the elements of their «Americanization», «personalization», «negativization». In turn, the strategies by which candidates and parties attract votes within the election campaigns are also influenced by factors such as the configuration ofpolitical institutions and the structure of the media system. A specific feature of the Austrian media system, which belongs to the democratic corporatist model (according to the classification of D. Hallin and P. Mancini), is the relatively late realization of the dualization of the television market and strong monopolistic media structures at the national level. There are four types of Austrian voters using political information and media: 1) traditionalist, the information-conscious, politically-involved (largest Austrian People’s Party voter share); 2) established, the information-interested, politically close (largest Social Democratic Party of Austria voter share); 3) modernity, politically distant, not interested information (votes for the Austrian Green Party more often); 4) unprivileged, dissatisfied with the policy, moderately informed (a high proportion of voters of the party «Alliance for the Future of Austria» and the Freedom Party of Austria). Conclusions of the research. Traditional media are an important and primary source for political information and decision making in elections, which leads to a trend of politicization of the media. The research conducted by the author allows to come to a conclusion that changes in political agitation, as a rule, need to be considered as reaction to the previous changes in a media system and electorate, and from features of modern Austrian election campaigns it is possible to allocate orientation to television and media.