Page 175 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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Local Political Communication

communication processes were primarily conceived in terms of their
relevance for political participation (Janowitz 1952; Wood 1959). This
research,originatingmostlyintheUnitedStates,wasbeingplacedwithin
the discourses on “small town community” and “participatory democ-
racy.” A second research phase in the 1970s and 1980s focused more
specifically on the effects of emerging local mass-media cultures and an-
alyzed the role of print media, radio, and television for local communica-
tion (Haenisch and Schroeter 1971; Cox and Morgan 1973; Dorsch 1978;
Schoenbach 1978; Heyn 1979; Rager and Schibriani 1981; Jarren 1984).
A third research frame, developed in the late 1980s, tried to critically
assess the diversification processes in local media by reconnecting media
development once again to issues of democratic accountability (Jarren
1991; Dubois 1993; Kurp 1994; Valle 1995; Salvador and Sias 1998).
On a parallel note, for the first time since the 1980s we see some case
studies emerging that aim at a more detailed assessment of local com-
munication spaces (Kaniss 1991, 1995; Brettschneider and Neller 1997;
3
Neller 1999). In general, though, the number of case studies of local
public spheres is limited. Moreover, the field is marked by a strong bias
toward Western Europe and the United States. African, Latin American,
and Asian local publics have in some instances been researched in the
context of how to use mass media to educate and politicize local publics
(see Okunna 1995). However, the primary sources of knowledge about
local publics limit this comparison for the most part to the United States,
Great Britain, France, and the German-speaking countries.

LOCAL MEDIA DEVELOPMENT
The Local Press
Until the early 1970s, local media was a synonym for the print me-
dia, or – more specifically – for the local daily paper (for Great Britain,
Franklin and Murphy 1998, 7; for Germany, Jonscher 1991, 74; Lang
2001; for the United States, Schudson 1978; Kaniss 1991). The press
had become the catalyst and focus of local political life. It framed local
policy processes, it commented on political decision making, it re-
flectedlocalcontroversiesandhelpedtoorganizepoliticalparticipation. 4

3 Neller (1999) provides the most detailed overview of the state of the arts in local
communication studies for the German-speaking countries. To my knowledge and
reception capabilities, there seem to be no comparable assessments for other countries.
4
Whether this early political catalyst function of the local press is also a feature of the
local publics in less economically developed countries will have to be addressed in

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