Page 59 - An Introduction to Political Communication Third Edition

POLITICS IN THE AGE OF MEDIATION

examples of political communication, as judged by aesthetic criteria.
Political communication can be directed, and increasingly is, by the
burgeoning political public relations industry (see Chapters 6 and
7). Like other types of communicator, the politician must work
within conventions which are known and understood by the
audience. These conventions may be poorly executed, competently
realised or creatively subverted, in the manner of aesthetic inno-
vation through the ages. The political communicator is a performer,
and will be judged by the audience, at least partly, on the quality of
a performance.
It must not be forgotten, however, that an array of mediating
factors intervene in the communicator–receiver relationship,
affecting the meaning of the message and its likely impact on
attitudes and behaviour. The status of the communicator is
important (incumbent president or outlawed terrorist?), as is the
form of the message (advertisement, conference speech or terrorist
act) and the social semiotics of its reception. One could have
admired the communicative abilities of Ronald Reagan, for
example, although one’s position as an unemployed steelworker or
environmentalist campaigner might have prevented acceptance of
the Reagan ‘message’. One may find George W. Bush’s rhetoric
about ‘smoking out evil doers’ irritating, while agreeing with the
need to defeat terrorism of the type which destroyed the World
Trade Center. The politician can shape and work the message, but
has relatively little control over the environment into which it is
inserted and the uses to which it will be put.

POLITICAL COMMUNICATION AND
THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS

An alternative to the empirical approach, with its emphasis on the
effects of political communication on behaviour and attitudes, is
to consider its impact on the democratic process itself. There is,
undoubtedly, something qualitatively different about a political
system in which the main means of communication are the mass
media. Do these differences have negative or positive implications
for the democratic ideal, as it was outlined in the previous chapter? 6
Butler and Kavanagh observe that

more than ever, election campaigns are managed and
orchestrated. Each party attempts to shape the agenda so

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