Political Press Research Articles

Health tourists and fellow travellers

We've had single parents, benefit cheats, and ‘bogus’ asylum seekers. Now we have ‘health tourists’. The latest in a long line of public enemies has emerged from a series of political speeches, press releases and television documentaries during the summer ‘silly season’ this year.

La patria centroamericana en la prensa política guatemalteca: continuidades y rupturas en El Amigo de la Patria y El Unionista (1820-1920)

El presente trabajo rastrea la idea de nación en la prensa política guatemalteca, a través de las páginas del órgano de propaganda del partido unionista guatemalteco denominado El Unionista, desde su creación hasta la caída de Estrada Cabrera (diciembre de 1919-abril 1920). Considera como su antecedente e inspirador a El Amigo de la Patria, de José C. del Valle, y establece con éste una serie de analogías entorno a la idea de Patria Grande centroamericana, como modelo de nación incluyente de sectores tradicionalmente marginados en la construcción nacional. Asimismo da cuenta de las dificultades de la prensa en los últimos momentos de la dictadura cabrerista en Guatemala.

Sociabilidad y opinión pública en Buenos Aires (1821-1852)

In this essay, new associative forms and new ways of social communication appeared in Rio de la Plata's society at the first half of nineteenth century are analysed. Yet, the narrow relation between the word of incipient political press and a new public sphere emergence are also examined. The autor emphasizes that, far from responding to fixed objetives by own promoters of these pratices, whose point of view was a way for «opinions standardization», its development led up to create formulation spaces of particular interests found now in the figure of «public opinion» as a valuable way for their defense.

In pursuit of the functional quality of political press releases

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Unity vs. Uniformity: Liang Qichao and the Invention of a "New Journalism" for China

When Liang Qichao burst upon the Chinese journalistic scene at the end of the nineteenth century, he allegedly shaped a "new journalism style" and "revolutionized the Chinese press," 2 eventually becoming "the most influential [newspaper journalist] China had ever known." 3 To attain this position Liang had to displace the existing papers on the press market by advancing new arguments to a new public. I will argue that many newspaper historians have taken Liang Qichao's own evaluation of the role played by his forerunners at face value instead of looking at its polemical character. The oft-cited explosion of the press market and dominance of the political press after the short Reform Movement of 1898 was not at all due only to Liang Qichao's refined and convincing rhetoric about the importance of a press in China—as it is often depicted—but rather part of much broader changes in both politics and journalism. Moreover, the "explosion" itself was in fact an outgrowth of a well-established tradition of modern Chinese journalism extending back more than three decades. Instead of sharing the generally held opinion that "Liang Qichao's formative influence on the development of Chinese newspapers as a new forum for social cohesion and political discussion can hardly be overestimated," 4 this study puts the question the other way, by asking whether this influence has not been overestimated for far too long.

Modern Mass Media and Traditional Communication in Afghanistan

This article explores the bipolar structure of communication in Afghanistan, where the latest technological advancements in media coexist with a complex system of traditional communication. After 22 years of civil war and the destruction of most modern media facilities, Afghanistan's traditional channels of communication have become even more significant. This article examines the history of the press in Afghan politics and society and asks what roles modern and traditional communication systems and values may play in the future.

Parlament und Presse im Zeitalter Max Webers

SUMMARY At the beginning of the twentieth century the German sociologist Max Weber regarded the new mass phenonmenon of the press as of major interest for sociological research. In 1909–10 he put forward two proposals for collaborative research on a grand scale into the place of the press in society, culture and politics. Only his own lawsuit with a newspaper, and possibly the difficulty he had in cooperating over a long period with other scholars, led to his abandoning the project. Later in life he frequently alluded to the influence of the press in his writings on politics, and himself used the newspapers extensively for them. He always saw the press as having an ambiguous role, as an important medium for forming public opinion, but also a weapon with which the unscrupulous could manipulate it. Cristiana Senigaglia shows how especially Weber's paper at a conference of German sociologists in 1910 stressed the political role of the press in relation to parliament and public opinion. His preliminary examination of the role of the press, which he never brought to fruition, nevertheless directed his attention to the working of parliamentary systems, and helped to form his preference for them as the best means for curbing the dangers inherent in powerful modern states ruling over mass societies. The press was the best guarantee of democracy, as long as it was so regulated by parliament that it could not be used to support a government seeking to bypass parliament.

Compelling but not Controlling?: Palmerston and the Press, 1846–1855

The growing importance of the newspaper press in nineteenth‐century politics has long been recognized by historians. It has also been acknowledged that newspapers were not only read by politicians but manipulated by them to achieve particular ends. This is, of course, nothing new in early twenty‐first century Britain, but in the mid‐nineteenth century the practice was less well defined. It was through the pages of the press that Lord Palmerston, foreign secretary, home secretary and ultimately prime minister, contrived to rally the support of middle England in an attempt to compensate for a lack of party and parliamentary support. This article examines in more detail than has been attempted elsewhere the methods Palmerston employed in manipulating different newspapers and their editors in the period immediately preceding his accession to the premiership in 1855. On becoming prime minister, he claimed he was 'l'inëvitable', but in so far as this con‐tained any truth, it was due largely to his ability to cultivate the image of himself through the press as the nation's favourite. To some extent, then, Palmerston was the first media manipulating prime minister, and this article illustrates how and why he paid such careful attention to the press in this period.

Radical Opinion in an Age of Reform: Thomas Perronet Thompson and the Westminster Review

Historians have long been interested in the growth of the nineteenth‐century political press, and many commentators recognize the instrumentality of newspapers, pamphlets, prints and publications of all kinds in the development of radical opinion and popular participation in politics. This article is offered as a contribution to continuing debates about the links between radicalism and the press. Its purpose is to examine the establishment and early history of the Westminster Review, the leading radical periodical of the early nineteenth century. Special attention will be paid to the role of Thomas Perronet Thompson (1783‐1869), who was associated with the review for several years as owner, editor and contributor. This article will demonstrate the importance of Thompson's involvement with the Westminster Review with reference to its politics, reputation, influence, management and status. Personal relationships which had a bearing on the review's early history ‐ particularly those between Thompson, Jeremy Bentham, John Bowring and the Mills ‐ will be examined, and there will also be discussion of editorial processes, journalistic standards, business rivalry, the nature of the Westminster Review's content, and its conflict with the Whig Edinburgh Review.

Democracy, commitment problems and managing ethnic violence: The case of India and Sri Lanka

Based on a case study of the Indian intervention in Sri Lanka's ethnic war from 1987 to 1990, this article explores the conditions under which democracies can act as effective third parties to resolve civil violence. India's experience as guarantor of a peace settlement in Sri Lanka suggests that not only the intractability of civil conflicts but the power of domestic pressures shape intervention policies and outcomes. Decision‐makers depend on the support of important domestic political elites ‐ political parties, interest groups, press, and governmental bureaucracies ‐ as well as the approval of the public who can reject them in periodic elections. In order to enforce peace settlements, third‐party guarantors must have a firm sense of the belligerents’ intentions and resources, sensitivity to the dynamics of the conflict, and freedom of action. At the same time, democratic leaders must consider the role of timing, the influence of internal bargaining, the importance of credible ‘staying power’, and personal reputation.

Media in ?Democratic? Zambia: Problems and Prospects

Zambia's transition to multiparty politics in 1991 has not led to significant changes in state-media relations. There was a brief period (just before and soon after 1991) when it ap-peared that the media would become an independent in-fluence in a democratic environment. But any movement in that direction has been thwarted by the continued state con-trol of the country's major news establishments. The inde-pendent media is weak due to a hostile political and legal environment and severe economic conditions. The ability of the independent press to contribute effectively to democratic discourse is further constrained by its failure to live up to the professional role of the press in pluralist politics. This paper examines the factors that have incapacitated the media and proposes that the same local and international civil society organizations that precipitated the 1991 transition to multiparty politics must again be mobilized to bring about a lasting transformation of state-media relations in Zambia.

The rise and fall of candidate Perot: The outsider versus the political system—part ii

This article uses Ross Perot's campaign for president in 1992 as a case study in how two key political institutions—the conventional political press and the party system—mediate the effects of political communication. Reporters allocated positive and negative coverage to Perot according to the same rules that they normally follow, and voters were as responsive to this coverage as they were to media coverage of two earlier “outsider” candidates for president, Jimmy Carter and Gary Hart. Part I of this article, which appeared in the previous issue of Political Communication, dealt with the earliest, relatively unmediated phase of Perot's campaign and the takeoff phase of the mediated campaign. Part II deals with the remainder of the campaign, including the general election.

The rise and fall of candidate Perot: Unmediated versus mediated politics—Part I

The article uses Ross Perot's campaign for president in 1992 as a case study in how two key political institutions, the conventional political press and the party system, mediate the effects of political communication. From an analysis of events in both the spring of 1992 and the general election, the Texan was highly effective when he could appeal to voters in an essentially unmediated fashion. His candidacy failed, however, because it could not deal effectively with the political institutions by which the United States customarily selects its presidents. For example, Perot's appearances on morning interview programs persuaded roughly 20 percent of those seeing them to support his candidacy. Because the audiences for these shows were relatively small, however, Perot's initial rise in the polls and his subsequent decline were driven mainly by coverage in the conventional press. Part I of the article deals with the earliest, relatively unmediated phase of Perot's campaign and the take‐off phase of the medi...

Presse d'opinion et presse militaire à l'armée des Pyrénées-Orientales : L'Écho des Pyrénées, L'Avant-Garde de l'Armée des Pyrénées-Orientales et le Journal de l'Armée des Pyrénées-Orientales (1793-1795)

Political Press and Military Press in the Pyrénées-Orientales' Army : The Echo of the Pyrénées, The Avant-Garde of the Pyrénées- Orientales' Army and the Journal of the Pyrénées-Orientales' Army (1793-1795). Between 1793 and 1795, Pyrénées-Orientales lived in the midst of revolutionary war. The need to keep up the morale of the soldiers led to the creation of military oriented newspapers. Born of private initiative, the Echo of the Pyrénées did not shy away from polemics or free expression. When the Montagnards took in hand the Pyrénées-Orientales 'Army, they replaced it by the Avant-Garde of the Pyrénées-Orientales' Army, a Jacobine propaganda newspaper. After Thermidor, the Journal of the Pyrénées-Orientales' Army, its successor, was to be primarily a military paper.

Le discours rapporté dans les fabriques d'opinions

Fiala, Pierre - Reported discourse in opinion manufactures. Reported speech is an essential mechanism in the referential construction of media discourse, which is dominated by the patterns of clarity, explanation, transparency and seduction which are linked to the attempt to reach an audience and influence public opinion. In periods of serious international crises, the functions and effects of formal properties stand out more sharply. Reported speech, which is a general language fact, appears as an essential media mechanism for fashioning political space, organizing representations and giving media exposure to conflicts to the benefit of social strategies. This article highlights the general mechanisms of reported speech in the political press ; it includes a recapitulative bibliography.

The Prussian myth and modern nationalism in Ernst von salomon's novels

Ernst von Salomon is not an author to whom literary scholars have devoted much of their time and talents. In fact the life and works of this author have been virtually ignored by them.’ The explanation for this is doubtless the fact that Salomon not only belonged to radical right-wing literary and political circles and was a sanctioned writer in the Third Reich, but, in addition to this, even in his later works he openly presented himself as a proponent of German nationalism. In view of the current international situation all efforts to gain more insight on this phenomenon are surely justified. Ernst von Salomon was a man whose life and works revolved around concepts of nationalism. I decided that examining them could possibly add a new dimension to the discussion on this topic. Generally, nationalism is anathema to the mainstream of literary and academic thinking. I, for one, have rarely heard this term used in any contexts beyond those of discussing an anachronistic historical phenomenon, or as political namecalling. I learned to identify nationalism, especially German nationalism according to a list of characteristics which reads like a catalogue of vices. According to this list a nationalist is anti-intellectual, xenophobic, militaristic, sexually inhibited, and in addition, is opposed to democracy and progress and supports the authoritarian glorification of the state. Thus, it is understandable that nationalism is generally subject to condemnation in enlightened circles. Can one, however, treat nationalism as just an aberration of the human mind?1 have often suspected that nationalistic forces are present in the human mind and affect us in a more powerful, yet subtle way than we know and want to believe. For Salomon, nationalism was a ubiquitous and structural element in human thoughts and feelings. He viewed nationalism as a driving force of the human mind, able to take on different forms according to historical circumstances and be distorted in many ways. Let us now look more systematically at Salomon’s reflections on nationalism, and how they developed. In his most famous and significant novel Der Fragebogen [The Questionnaire], a defiant and detailed response to the Allies’ ‘De-Nazifying Questionnaire’, Salomon, when asked his nationality wrote: ‘Ich bin Preusse!’ ‘I am a Prussian!‘* Without a doubt this was both a declaration of loyalty to his ideological convictions and an act of defiance towards the Anglo-Saxon political press who, from World War I, had denounced Prussianism and the Prussian Spirit as the poison of the German mind and the immediate pre-stage of German Fascism.’ And, indeed, one of the main goals of the Allies’ Re-Education program was to eradicate this Prussian mentality.

Russia’s Experiment with Democracy

Essay| October 01 1992 Russia’s Experiment with Democracy Stephen White Stephen White Stephen White is a professor of politics and a member of the Institute of Soviet and East European Studies at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. His most recent publications are Gorbachev and After, 3d ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) and Developments in Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics, 2d ed. (Durham, N C.: Duke University Press, 1992). Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Current History (1992) 91 (567): 310–313. https://doi.org/10.1525/curh.1992.91.567.310 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Stephen White; Russia’s Experiment with Democracy. Current History 1 October 1992; 91 (567): 310–313. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/curh.1992.91.567.310 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentCurrent History Search This content is only available via PDF. © 1992 by The Regents of the University of California1992 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

On the History of the Russian Peasantry at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century

Long ago it was discovered that in time of worldly disorder, or put it scientifically, of economic crisis, people become keenly interested in the past-in their history. The social and political press in Russia of the past years is graphic example of the intensification of this interest. It seems likely me that this literature, sensing the nostalgic mood of the majority of the people and their loss of faith in the slogans about the bright future of communist society, is outdistancing the people in the search for golden age in the past, more specifically, in prerevolutionary Russia. It is becoming in several respects like the Slavophiles of glorious memory, who belatedly accepted the robust, pre-Petrine Rus' as the golden age. This is not defame the Slavophiles, who were highly moral patriots of their Motherland, but an effort comprehend fully the country's true socioeconomic situation. As rule, historians lag behind in explaining contemporary events, which is understandable, since they are historians. Therefore we will examine the opinions of people who respond more efficiently the topic of the day-economists, writers, and public figures. Without pretending completely represent all opinions, I will isolate several that are close my own scholarly interests, the history of agriculture and the peasantry of Russia. One distinctive feature of publicist commentary is the extreme exaggeration of the successes of agriculture during the period of Stolypin's restructuring of the countryside, accompanied by summons to bow down former gods (E M. Dostoevsky), primarily P. A. Stolypin. Thus, A. I. Solzhenitsyn, genuinely uneasy with the country's current circumstances, writes about prerevolutionary Russia as a wealthy and prosperous country.' The well-known writer B. Mozhaev, in dispute with Vera Tkachenko, who wrote about old Russia's backwardness

After Marx, before Lenin: Marxism and socialist working-class parties in Europe, 1884-1914

The 30 years preceding World War I were critical for the development of European workers' parties. When Marx died in 1883, only Germany had a viable working-class movement; by 1914 most central and western European countries had large and growing workers' parties with leaders committed both to what they understood as Marx's political ideas and to full participation in respresentative politics. In this study of pre-1914 European socialist parties, Gary Steenson offers new interpretations of the history and nature of the working-class socialist movements in Germany, France, Austria and Italy. Relying on the correspondence between Friedrich Engels and party leaders, he analyzes Engels' view of European politics and his strategic counsel. A concluding chapter determines the relative Marxness of each party during this period. Instead of emphasizing theoretical works that were little known at the time, Steenson derives the standards for Marxian political orthodoxy from party publications and the political press - easily available to those seeking to apply Marx's theories - as well as Engels's voluminous correspondence. Steenson argues that in this period the socialist working-class parties of Germany, France, Austria and Italy saw no contraction between their adherence to Marxism and full participation in democratic, representative politics, and that in those countries where democratic forms did not exist, prominent Marxists led the struggle to obtain them. European Marxists did not see themselves as elite vanguards destined to force the pace of history on a reluctant working class, but as the means by which workers themselves could realize their historical role.

Printed poison: pamphlet propaganda, faction politics, and the public sphere in early Seventeenth-century France

Combining a broad analysis of political culture with a particular focus on rhetoric and strategy, Jeffrey Sawyer analyzes the role of pamphlets in the political arena in seventeenth-century France. During the years 1614-1617 a series of conflicts occurred in France, resulting from the struggle for domination of Louis XIII's government. In response more than 1200 pamphletssome printed in as many as eighteen editionswere produced and distributed. These pamphlets constituted the political press of the period, offering the only significant published source of news and commentary. Sawyer examines key aspects of the impact of pamphleteering: the composition of the targeted public and the ways in which pamphlets were designed to affect its various segments, the interaction of pamphlet printing and political action at the court and provincial levels, and the strong connection between pamphlet content and assumptions on the one hand and the evolution of the French state on the other. His analysis provides new and valuable insights into the rhetoric and practice of politics. Sawyer concludes that French political culture was shaped by the efforts of royal ministers to control political communication. The resulting distortions of public discourse facilitated a spectacular growth of royal power and monarchist ideology and influenced the subsequent history of French politics well into the Revolutionary era.