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infotainment has become a more structural phenomenon in Europe, whether it
has changed systematically the content of television’s portrayal of politics and
whether, as many claim, this has resulted in and, at the same time, is proof of a
crisis in politicial communication’s role in democracy.

The scary world of commercial television and beyond

Many authors in the United States (e.g. Brokaw et al., 1997; Hallin, 1996; McManus,
1994; see also the 1996 Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social
Sciences) and in Europe (e.g. De Bens, 1998; Franklin, 1994; Kavanagh, 1997; Siune,
1998; see also Pfetsch, 1996, and others in Germany, Belgium and Scandinavia who
research the so-called ‘convergence hypothesis’) have linked the commercial basis
of television in the USA and the recent changes in the broadcasting system in
Europe with developments in the level of political knowledge and participation in
and, more generally, with the quality of the democratic system. It is sometimes
called ‘infotainment’ or ‘tabloidization’, when addressing the same issue in
newspapers. Usually the picture is as bleak as the topic is hot.
American Jay G. Blumler (who, until his recent retirement, worked at the
University of Leeds in the UK and the University of Maryland in the USA) is
probably the most outspoken and certainly the most repetitive in his critical
assessment of the causal link, its origins and effects. In following him (often in
collaboration with his colleague Michael Gurevitch) in what he has dubbed
alternatively a ‘crisis of public’ or ‘civic communication’, and a ‘crisis of
communication for citizenship’, Blumler stands for many political scientists and
communication scholars who worry about what he calls the ‘commercial deluge’
inundating Europe, and its consequences for democracy.
As with many of his colleagues, Blumler’s starting point is democratic theory,
or the idea of collective decision-making through deliberative communication
and debate among the members of the public. In the ideal democracy, of course,
individuals participate equally in the decision-making process. But most modern
democratic states have, for all practical and political purposes, been constituted
with forms of representative democracy, wherein the people delegate political
authority to others representing them. The devices intended to link citizens to
their representatives were elections, political organizations and public opinion
generated and conveyed through the mass media. A prerequisite for a well-
functioning democracy in this theory is an actively and rationally participating
citizenry that has access to a free market-place of ideas and is fed by relevant
information and that knows something about the actual issues on the political
agenda. Democracy thus requires that the media (and for Europe particularly,
public service broadcasting) perform and provide a number of functions and
services for the political system. Notably:

Surveillance of the sociopolitical environment, reporting developments likely
to impinge, positively or negatively, on the welfare of citizens. Meaningful