Page 48 - An Introduction to Political Communication Fifth Edition

Intro to Politics Communication (5th edn)-p.qxp 9/2/11 10:55 Page 27

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THE EFFECTS OF POLITICAL
COMMUNICATION

This chapter:

• Outlines the main approaches to the effects of political com-
munication within media studies
• Examines the evidential bases of effects research.

As with all categories of media output there is a wide variety of approaches
which one can take to the ‘effects issue’ in political communication, none of
which produces easy answers to the question, ‘does it work?’ For the sake of
clarity, this chapter approaches the effects issue from three broad perspectives.
First, we shall consider the extent to which the purposeful communicative
behaviour of political actors, such as political advertising and conference
speeches, can influence the attitudes and behaviour of the intended audience.
Effects of this type can be examined at the micro-level of the individual
consumer of the message, or at the macro-level, when individual responses
to political communication are aggregated together in the form of public
opinion polls and other indices of collective political will.
Second, we shall examine how the political process of democratic
societies – their procedures and practices – has been affected by the growing
importance within them of mass communication.
And third, we shall consider the systemic impact of the rise of political
communication on advanced capitalist societies such as the UK and the US.
Political communication, as already noted, is largely mediated com-
munication, transmitted through the print and electronic media. The media
alter the message, in their roles as reporters of and commentators on it. They
are, therefore, political actors in their own right. Chapter 4 considers the
effects of media coverage of politics, as discussed in the vast volume of
research which has been conducted into the subject over many years.
Before considering any of these different types of effect, a few words on
the difficulties associated with the ‘effects issue’ in general are appropriate.

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