Page 30 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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Barbara Pfetsch and Frank Esser

and explain interrelationships all the more depends on whether the re-
search is systematically guided by theory.
The range of themes and research questions associated with com-
parative political communication research is – as Hans Kleinsteuber
(Chapter 4, this volume) points out – enormously broad and diverse. In
this respect, comparative research goes well beyond determining simi-
larities and differences between different objects studied. Kleinsteuber
stresses that comparative designs fit to analyze complex interrelation-
ships and thereby shed light on processes of diffusion, dependence,
temporality, or performance. With respect to political communication,
Kleinsteuber’s overview reminds us that comparative studies are by no
means limited to the prominent subject of election campaign communi-
cation, as one may believe from glancing through the literature. In fact,
comparisons across countries have been applied in many fields of com-
munication studies and media policy. Moreover, concerning the analysis
of media systems we are on the way to understanding international pro-
cesses of modernization and transformation as well as processes and
effects of media regulatory policy. However, Kleinsteuber also empha-
sizes that some political developments, that is the problem of multilevel
governance as observed, for instance, with the expanding competences
following European Union integration policy, represent a serious chal-
lenge for comparative research.

THE QUESTIONS AND THEMES OF COMPARATIVE
POLITICAL COMMUNICATION RESEARCH IN THIS STUDY
The demand for comparative research in political communication is
consequential because it requires abstracting from the implicit premises
and the national idiosyncrasies in both politics and media communica-
tions in the search for generalizable communication patterns and their
consequences. Considering the substantial driving forces of comparative
research two comprehensive themes stand out. On the one hand, fears
concerning the homogenization of media, media contents, and polit-
ical communication processes as a result of technological, social, and
political change led to the debate of concepts of convergence such as
Americanization, globalization, and modernization. On the other hand,
the suspicion that the media would dominate the modern political pub-
licity process with the implication of dysfunctional effects on modern
democracies provoked an exhaustive preoccupation with the structures,
actors, media contents, and effects of political communication.

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