Page 59 - An Introduction to Political Communication Fifth Edition

Intro to Politics Communication (5th edn)-p.qxp 9/2/11 10:55 Page 38

POLITICS IN THE AGE OF MEDIATION
politics. The fact that Goldsmith was not even resident in Britain made his
financial usurping of the political process even more offensive. In the 2010
UK general election Lord Ashcroft, resident in Belize, controversially donated
millions of pounds to the Conservative Party, focusing his resources on key
marginal seats.
On the other hand, having money does not necessarily buy good or
effective political communication. Innovation and creativity in political
communication, as in other forms of cultural activity, are not the monopoly
of the wealthy.
Whether the producers of political communication are creative geniuses
or not, however, money gives an advantage, all other things being equal. In
1992, for example, the Conservative Party was able to book 4,500 poster
sites, at a cost of £1.5 million, as compared to Labour’s 2,200 (cost, £0.5
million) and the Liberal Democrats’ 500 (cost, £0.17 million) (Butler and
Kavanagh, 1992, p. 116). Campaign spending as a whole in 1992 was £10.1
million for the Tories, £7.1 million for Labour, and £2.1 million for the
Liberal Democrats (ibid., p. 260). In the general election of 1997, the figures
were £13 million, £17 million and £3 million respectively.
Criticisms of the rising costs of campaigning are, as one would expect,
more likely to be heard from those with less rather than more access to the
financial and other resources discussed here. That does not invalidate them,
of course, and following the 1997 election the New Labour government
introduced rules limiting each party’s campaign spending to £15 million,
index linked. In the 2010 general election campaign the Conservative Party
spent £18 million, and Labour around £10 million.

THE COMMERCIALISATION OF POLITICS

The third level at which we can examine the impact of modern political
communication is on the social system itself: the capitalist social formation,
within which democracy usually comprises the defining political element. An
important tradition within sociology has argued that the growing role of
mass communication in politics represents the extension of capitalist social
relations – in particular, the relations of consumption – to the political
sphere. In the process, politics has become artificial and degenerate. Jurgen
Habermas has argued that ‘late capitalism brings with it the manipulation of
public opinion through the mass media, the forced articulation of social
needs through large organisations, and in short, the management of politics
by the “system”’ (quoted in Pusey, 1978, p. 90). Using different language,
but saying essentially the same thing, Herbert Schiller observes that in
contemporary capitalism politicians ‘are “sold” to the public, much like soap
and automobiles. . . . Issues of public policy, when considered at all,
increasingly receive their expression and discussion in thirty-second

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