Page 191 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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Local Political Communication

to the capital city and receiving taped solutions to these problems”
(Ogan1989,4).Comparativestudiesofsuchmediainitiativeswouldhelp
us understand the political and cultural contexts in which such initiatives
rise, the determinants for sustaining them, and what could be considered
best-practice models of local communication development in less devel-
oped countries.
LOCAL GOVERNANCE AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE. While media are a central
part of local communication, local publics echo numerous voices that
primarily communicate aside from the media. Interpersonal and organi-
zational communication patterns created within and between neighbor-
hoods, associations, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), parties,
and activists serve to create and sustain public discourse and to offer
venues for opinion formation about local affairs. But few studies define
spaces of communication broadly enough to include media-induced
as well as organizational and interpersonal communication. Fuchs and
Schenk found in an empirical survey of Germany in the mid-1980s that
49 percent of local citizens used the daily paper as their primary source
of information about local and regional issues. Thirty-two percent, how-
ever,extractedtheirpoliticalinformationoutofinterpersonalcommuni-
cation(FuchsandSchenk1984,214–15).Whileundoubtedlytodaythese
figures would be more strongly favoring the local media, it would be a
mistake to continue to neglect other communication venues that help
to channel news gathering and transform news processing into political
activity. Civic networks and NGOs help create local publics by relying on
less institutionalized, open, and flexible routes of communication (Lang
2003a).
Since the late 1980s, we have witnessed in Western European soci-
eties and the United States an increasing commitment to local neigh-
borhood or issue-oriented organizations with fluid and open partic-
ipatory structures. The 1990s turned former social movement actors
into professionalized NGO members. Short-term issue-centered al-
liances were created that invigorate local publics and challenge tra-
ditionally tight communication among elites on the local level (Lang
2000). The local neighborhood alliance today brings a different set of
voices to the public than the established Chamber of Commerce or local
party or union chapters. Urban environmental activists might politi-
cize different topics and might employ a different set of communi-
cation strategies than the Sierra Club. Thus, the information and ac-
tivist networks of local NGOs transform the local publics of which
they are part. Their organized public mobilization campaigns, acts of

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