Page 90 - An Introduction to Political Communication Second Edition

5

THE MEDIA AS POLITICAL
ACTORS

Chapter 1 included, in its list of political actors, media institutions
and those who work in them. This draws our attention to the fact
that in contemporary liberal democracies media institutions perform
not only cognitive functions of information dissemination but also
interpretative functions of analysis, assessment, and comment. Not
only do the media report politics, they are a crucial part of the
environment in which politics is pursued. They contribute to policy
discussion and resolution, not only in so far as they set public agendas,
or provide platforms for politicians to make their views known to
the public, but also in judging and critiquing the variety of political
viewpoints in circulation. In this chapter we examine the many
formats in which the overtly interpretative work of the political media
is done.

DEFINING POLITICAL REALITY

We begin at the most general level, noting that the media are active
in denning political ‘reality’. Through the processes of newsgathering
and production described in the previous chapter, the audience is
finally presented with a ‘finished’ articulation of what ‘really’
matters in political affairs at any given time. Journalists
communicate to us the ‘meaning’ of politics (Gerstle et al., 1991).
They insert the events of political life into narrative frameworks
which allow them to be told as news stories. These frameworks do
not spring fully formed from the journalistic pen, of course, but
develop over time in the interaction and competition between
different news media, and between the various actors in, or sources
of, a story. Over time, competing frameworks are narrowed down
and eliminated until one, dominant framework remains. Although

73