Professionalization Of Political Communication Research Articles

Context matters: Professionalization of campaign posters from Adenauer to Merkel

Abstract This study examines the professionalization of political communication by focusing on changes to campaign posters for Bundestag elections over the course of five eras of German post-war history. We conducted a quantitative content analysis of both visual and textual elements of campaign posters (N = 1,857) in the period from 1949 to 2017 with regard to personalization, de-ideologization, and negative campaigning. The study revealed differences related to the five eras. Following the early conservative governments (1949–1969), high levels of personalization and ideologization first became defining features of election campaigns during the social-liberal era (1969–1982). After the Kohl era (1982–1998), these trends have occurred again since the Schröder era (1998–2005) and have been reinforced in the Merkel era (2005–2017). Furthermore, we found neither a clear upward nor a downward trend for negative campaigning. Overall, our study demonstrated that political parties adapt their communication strategies to the context of the respective election.

Fianna Fáil and the professionalisation of political communication in Ireland

ABSTRACTThe Fianna Fáil general election campaign in 1977 is widely seen as a breakthrough in political communication and election campaigning in Ireland. This ‘modern’ and ‘professional’ campaign is considered a key contest between previous campaigns and those that followed. This article, however, challenges the view that the 1977 campaign marked a key moment in terms of campaign professionalisation. Rather the argument is that the seminal moment only occurs two decades later, in 1997, with the first general election campaign of Bertie Ahern’s tenure as Fianna Fáil leader. In order to assess these two campaigns, the evolution in political communication and election campaign techniques in Ireland is examined through the prism of what are labelled ‘Four Ages’ based on election dates: 1922–1965; 1969–1992; 1997–2011; and an emerging digital era post-2016.

The Professionalization of Political Communication? A Longitudinal Analysis of Dutch Election Campaign Posters

This article provides an analysis of Dutch election posters in the period from 1946 to 2006. Based on the literature on the professionalization of political communication, several hypotheses are formulated regarding changes in textual and visual elements of those posters. These hypotheses focus on over-time changes in the presence and prominence of the party leader and party logo’s as well as references to specific political issues and ideology in these posters. In total, 225 posters for 23 parties in 19 elections are analyzed. Results reveal that changes in visual elements are in line with the hypotheses, with an increased use of party logo, an increasing presence and prominence of the party leader, and a decreasing focus on ideology. The textual parts of the posters, however, show no or opposite trends. The results call for a more nuanced scientific treatment of the consequences of the professionalization of political communication and demonstrate the necessity to analyze both visual and textual elements of political parties’ communication.

A Functional Public Sphere? A Systems Theoretical Look at the Professionalization of Political Communication

The basic proposition of this article is that the democratic potential of professionalization clearly outweighs the problems, at least in the Danish case, but probably also more generally. Thus, my claim is that the professionalization of political communication contributes positively to the development of the public sphere and more democratic communication in the political system as well as the journalistic system. This claim is, however, not based on critical public sphere theory, but rather sociological systems theory headed first and foremost by Niklas Luhmann. Thus, the article introduces the functionalistic strategy of analysis of systems theory as an alternative to what could be called the utopian method of critical public sphere theory. In the final instance, the choice between these two traditions is simply a matter of analytical approach.

Where's the Spin? The Executive and News Management in France

This article examines news management by the French executive. With examples taken mainly from the Chirac presidency, it argues that the French executive has been influenced by the trend towards greater professionalisation of political communication in recent years and that its capacity to act as a ‘primary definer’ for the news media is significant. Nonetheless, the fragmentation of the core authorities, a certain bureaucratic resistance to public communication activities and a less deferential journalistic culture than in the past undermine the applicability of a ‘command and control’ model to news management in the contemporary era.

Professionalization of Political Communication

Americanization of Western European election campaigns has frequently been discussed, particularly in the media, but rarely defined. This article argues that the concept of professionalization better encompasses the process of change that can be observed in electoral communication. Professionalization is here regarded as a process by which the political actors adapt their strategies to changes in society and in the political system as well as to changes in the media system. The campaign of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) for the 1998 Federal Election is here described as an example of professionalized electioneering.

The Professionalization of Political Communication

Professionalization has become a self-defining, catch-all buzzword employed to explain the recent changes in political communication. However, because of the catch-all or blanket explanatory quality of the term `professionalization', its use within the literature on political communication and campaigning obscures multifaceted shifts in the methods by which political actors communicate through the media. Drawing on a number of interviews with former and current UK members of parliament and prospective parliamentary candidates, the authors argue that much of what is referred to within the discourse of professionalization is linked more to responses to technological change. They propose, therefore, that more care should be taken when describing all modern political communication as professional, otherwise there is a danger of inferring that the practices of the past were amateurish; a conclusion that does not stand up to rigorous research.

Whither the Future? Some Afterthoughts

Papers in the symposium reflect in various ways distinctly European perspectives on recent developments in political communication, especially in their concern for possibilities of supranational political institutions and their focus on consequences of the decline of the mass party as an institutional form. From the European viewpoint, professionalization of political communication is alien to the very nature of political parties, and hence a special interest arises in making certain the professionals are not in charge. The symposium papers highlight the connectedness of political communication to other institutions and forces and the need not to overestimate the autonomy of political communication or its cultural specificity.