Page 215 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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StrategicPolitical Communication

particularly important when the public distrusts the political elites.At the
same time, they probably are more influential, the more the public trusts
the media. In addition, the impact of the media depends on the extent
to which the issue in question is sponsored by established political ac-
tors, who bring it into the public arena (Gamson and Modigliani 1989,
5–9). Finally, and above all, the impact of consensus mobilization by the
media depends on the resonance they obtain in the public (Gamson and
Modigliani 1989, 5–9). In order to obtain such resonance, the media
make use of the strategies that have been described by the “framing
approach.” 4
By organizing surveys and by publishing their results, the media also
fulfill a control and evaluation function with regard to politics, which
goes beyond the task of commenting and interpreting. This is done in
aroutine fashion today. With the surveys they organize and the results
they stage as public events, the media routinely put established political
actors under public pressure. Political actors and the media increasingly
disregard formal power and orient themselves exclusively at the capacity
of elected political actors to command the support of the citizens on
aday-by-day basis. This support is measured by regularly conducted
surveys. As a consequence, as Morris observes, each day is election day
in the United States today, and in order to govern, an elected official
needs a daily majority.
Using polls and presenting them as media events, the media are also
able to create specific political facts. An illustrative example is provided
by the 1995 French presidential election. In this case, the survey results
publishedbythemediahadimportanteffectsonthecandidatesthatwere
running (Maarek 1997). First of all, Jacques Delors became a candidate
for the Left because of his popularity in early surveys, even though he was
not prepared to become one. He had to explicitly distance himself from
such media insinuations. Then, the official candidate of the Left, Henry
Emmanuelli, the secretary general of the Socialist party at the time, lost
the support of party activists because surveys showed that Lionel Jospin
had a greater chance to be elected. Finally, the candidate of the Radical
party, Jean-Franc¸ois Hory, withdrew early in the race after surveys had
shown that he had only little support.
Finally, under special circumstances, the media can even directly mo-
5
bilize for specific actions (“motivational framing”). Above all,action
4
Compare Snow and Benford (1988) and Snow et al. (1986) as well as Kliment (1998).
5
For the distinction between consensus mobilization and action mobilization, see
Klandermans (1984, 586–7).
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