Political Communication and Political News Management

‘In the communication sphere, the concentration has been occurring at an intensifying tempo over the last twenty years’ (Schiller, 2000, p. 116). To highlight the relationship between Internet and political communication, I read Political Communication (Dahlgren, 2005, pp. 147-162) and Digitised capitalism: what has changed? (Schiller, 2000, pp. 116-126) in Media Power, Professionals and Policies .

According to Dahlgren (2005, pp. 148-150), in regards to examination the public sphere, there can be depicted three main concepts: Structures, Representation and Interaction.[i] These three concepts are so bounded that when the democratic tendencies are not strong enough, the chain affects all the aspects and even the Internet access for civic use. However, as technology and Internet have become more powerful, the representation and interaction fade into each other.

The traditional political communication, the democracies and the public sphere’ structures, representation and interaction are now facing difficult times, the technological development replacing them in the modern society (Dahlgren, 2005, pp. 150-151). At the opposite pole, the concentration of capital reached its peak in the communication area, the investments running into hundreds of billions of dollars annually. (Schiller, 2000, pp. 118-119)

On one hand, apart from well-known harmful sides of using the Internet in political communication[ii], online platforms also have beneficial sides such as the word freedom for citizens who are not confident to show their opinion in a face-to-face environment and it accelerates a spectacular grown in digital networks for activists (Dahlgren, 2005, pp. 154-156). The communication development gives confident to capitalism which breaks any limits in terms of financial investments[iii]. I believe that the citizen freedom of expressing themselves could change the political system to fit their requests.

On the other hand, people debate on political topics starting from a fake premise, yet online forums and chats are full of lies and inappropriate language, but this kind of situations are merely happening even in face-to-face political conversations.[iv] Social and cultural groups express the civic culture trough concepts like values, affinity, knowledge, identities, practices, civic interactions and discussion. (Dahlgren, 2005, pp. 158-160). Probably the most harmful tactic is spin doctoring, concept outlined in Lecture by Dr Ayo Oyeleye.

The main side of economy’s investments is the telecommunications sector that ‘become the pacemaker of the entire economy’ (Schiller, 2000, p. 116). I do consider that political communication in virtual world has its own beneficial sides for citizens as well as for the economy sector: ‘the international communication field is still recognisable’[v] I would employ a focus group research methodology, pointing questions around public sphere topic.

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References:

Dahlgren, P. (2005) Internet, Public Spheres, and Political Communication: Dispersion and Deliberation’ in Political Communication, pp. 147-162

Long, P. and Wall, T. (2012) Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context, 2n dEdition, Essex: Pearson Education Limited

Schiller, H. I. (2000) Digitised capitalism: what has changed? in Tumber, H. Media Power, Professionals and Policies, London: Routledge

Bibliography:

Dahlgren, P. (2005) Internet, Public Spheres, and Political Communication: Dispersion and Deliberation’ in Political Communication, pp. 147-162

Long, P. and Wall, T. (2012) Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context, 2n dEdition, Essex: Pearson Education Limited

McNair, B (1999) An introduction to political communication, London: Routledge

Schiller, H. I. (2000) Digitised capitalism: what has changed? in Tumber, H. Media Power, Professionals and Policies, London: Routledge

[i] The first one is formed by media organization, political economy, ownership, control etc. and it is point out the freedom of communication. Representation has as a target audience small groups and the liberty of word is also accomplished. The dimension of interaction conceptualizes two aspects: the personal interpretation and relation to media and the human interaction, from a private conversation to large meetings.

[ii] The main sectors of Internet-based public sphere according to structural dimension are e-government, advocacy/activist domain, civic forums, parapolitical domain, journalism domain etc. (Dahlgren, 2005, p. 153).

[iii] The consequences of this implementation are a well organized program of data and a new way of delivering global advertisement

[iv] (Schiller, 2000, pp. 116-118)

[v] (Schiller, 2000, p. 126)

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