Page 17 - An Introduction to Political Communication Fifth Edition

Intro to Politics Communication (5th edn)-p.qxp 9/2/11 10:55 Page xvi

PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
producers of journalistic output themselves. The shift is one of emphasis, and
this book does not seek to replace the notion of an all-powerful media with
that of the all-powerful ‘spin doctor’ or media manipulator. It will, however,
add to a growing literature in communication and political studies concerned
with locating the media’s agency and effectivity in a wider social – in this case
political – environment, characterised by greater levels of uncertainty, risk
and arbitrariness than some perspectives within communication studies have
acknowledged.
Structurally, the book is organised into two parts. In Part I, I examine
what is meant by the term ‘political communication’, and who precisely are
the communicators. I describe the normative principles of liberal democracy
and consider how political communication relates, in theory, to the
democratic process. A complete chapter is devoted to outlining the contexts
in which modern mass media communicate politically, and another to the
‘effects’ of political communication on behaviour, attitudes and social
processes.
Part II places this introductory and theoretical material in the context of
the political communication practices of a variety of actors, including gov-
ernments and party politicians, both domestically and in the international
arena; business and trade union leaders; and marginalised political actors
such as pressure groups and terrorist organisations.
A short conclusion makes a tentative effort to answer the question: is the
increasing role of mass communication in the political process a ‘good’ or a
‘bad’ thing for democracy?

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