Page 210 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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Hanspeter Kriesi

Challengers Public Sphere Decision Makers Policy Output
Events
Political
Parties Parliament

Media Policy
Interest Executive
Groups
Judiciary
SMOs Public
Opinion

Figure 8.1 Framework to Analyze the Role of the Public Sphere in the Process
of Political Decision Making. Note: Social Movement Organizations (SMOs).

order to influence the processes taking place in the decision-making
arena,publicauthoritiesandotherpoliticalactorsproduce,amongother
things, events that the media report on for their audience. Simplifying
greatly, the model assumes a media-centered public sphere and does not
provide for direct external (e.g., through public assemblies) or internal
(e.g., through internal communications in political organizations) links
between the collective political actors and the political authorities on the
one hand, and the public on the other hand. Although the model focuses
on the “production” of public events, it does not exclude that political
actors directly access the media without creating public events (e.g., in
informal luncheons with journalists). The reciprocal arrows that link
media and events indicate that the media not only report and comment
upon events, but that they contribute to their production, too. Finally,
the events reported on in the media determine public opinion, which
in turn exerts an impact on the decision makers and on the positions
and strategies adopted by the collective actors in subsequent rounds of
decision making.

STRATEGIES FOR MOBILIZING PUBLIC OPINION
Letusnow look more closely at the three types of strategies. The interac-
tion among them leads to a complex system of interaction in the public
sphere that cannot simply be instrumentalized by one of the political

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