Page 34 - An Introduction to Political Communication Third Edition

POLITICS IN THE AGE OF MEDIATION

• Third, and critical to the shaping of the second category of
subjective perceptions, is constructed reality, meaning events as
covered by the media.

While arguments about the precise efficacy of the media’s political
output continue, there is no disagreement about their central role in
the political process, relaying and interpreting objective happenings
in the political sphere, and facilitating subjective perceptions of
them in the wider public sphere. For this reason, media ‘biases’ are
of key political importance.
This is true of both print and broadcast media, and in all societies.
Some ‘biases’ may be attributed, as Chapter 4 shows, to constraints
and limitations on the newsgathering process. Others are the
product of choices made to support this or that political party or
idea. Newspapers in Britain and most other capitalist societies are
relatively open about which political parties they support (though
some seek to maintain the appearance of neutrality). Broadcasters
are generally more reticent, although, in many political debates,
such as those which have occupied the UK media around such issues
as industrial relations and the future of Northern Ireland, clear
preferences have been on display. 2
While the extent and direction of media bias will vary in a
modern democracy, the fact that it exists entitles us to view the
media organisations as important actors in the political process.
Between the sending of a political message and its reception by
an audience, something happens to it. It gets altered in various
ways, consciously or as a consequence of the media production
process, so that its meaning and hence impact on an audience may
change.
The media – and the print media in particular – are important to
the political process in more direct ways. While analysts may argue
about the bias of reportage, all newspapers take pride in their
‘public voice’ – the editorials in which they articulate political
3
opinions. Sometimes these are presented as the ‘voice of the reader’,
and directed at policy-makers. Alternatively, they may be
constructed as the calm, authoritative voice of the editor, viewing
the political scene from a detached distance. In both cases, the
editorial is intended as a political intervention, and is often read as
such by a government or a party. Commentaries, analyses, and
other forms of ‘authored’ journalism are also interventionist in
intention. Chapter 5 will consider how the journalists’ messages
interact with the political process as a whole.

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