Page 171 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

P1: JZZ
0521828317c07.xml CY425/Esser 0521828317 May 26, 2004 15:56

SEVEN

Local Political Communication

Media and Local Publics in the Age of Globalization

Sabine Lang

Local publics are neglected entities within the broad scope of communi-
cation studies. Our knowledge of how people communicate politically
in their local communities is limited. This is a fact not only in regard
to underresearched peripheral societies, but also in relation to the de-
veloped publics of Western democracies. Daily newspapers have long
had a reputation of parochialism, local television news shows are as-
sociated with low standards and obsession with crime and scandals,
and local radio has abandoned news in favor of music or talk show
formulas.
Even though globalization has advanced to become a catchword in
analyses of urban economies and politics, communication studies seem
reluctant to confront the interdependence between local and global me-
dia markets, local and global communication practices (i.e., local groups
sustaining global movements) and local and global tools to gain political
voice (i.e., the impact of the Internet on local communication). This
chapter aims at diffusing notions of the local as being provincial or too
smallaunitfortheanalysisofpubliclife.Itintendstostimulatediscussion
about the relevance of local political communication arenas as unique
public spaces as well as signifiers of national and global communication
trends.
It is common knowledge that social and political capital is acquired
primarily through socialization processes in the immediate life world
(Bourdieu 1982; Putnam 2000). Theories of democracy have argued
that local political communication and participation options are a pre-
requisite for sustained civic engagement and that the spatial radius of
the local provides initiation into democratic practices and accountabili-
ties (see Barber 1984; Phillips 1996). Numerous studies claim that, even
though participation in local elections is often lower than on the national

151