Page 32 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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Barbara Pfetsch and Frank Esser

countries instead of considering them as consequences of exogenous
influences. Approaches that follow the notion of “modernization” or
“secularization” (Chapter 2, this volume), refer to changes in political
communication as a consequence of a prolonged, universal structural
change in politics, society, and media systems, which is generally ap-
parent in modern Western democracies. The developments of political
communication thus mark the consequences of a fundamental transfor-
mation in society, which has changed the three integral coordinates of
thecommunicationsystem–politicalactors,media,andthepublic.With
respect to the public, processes of individualization have led to a dilu-
tion of traditional patterns of identity formation. The result of this was a
loosening of ties with political parties and increasingly volatile elections.
In the case of the media this amounted to secularization and commer-
cialization. In accordance with the modernization thesis the structural
changes of political actors, media, and the public are attributable to the
long-term processes of increasing functional differentiation of modern
societies.Moreorlessallmoderndemocraciesseethemselvesconfronted
with this structural transformation and react to it with specific national
adaptation strategies. Some elements of this process can be seen more
clearly in the particularly advanced media-centered democracy of the
United States than elsewhere.
The contribution of David Swanson (Chapter 3, this volume) takes up
thediscussiononthedevelopmentsandtheconsequencesofmodernized
political communication systems and confronts us with “new realities.”
The most recent political developments in the United States as well as in
Islamic countries make us realize that political communication systems
and their effects are profoundly dynamic. It is not only the European
systems that are in flux but also the American system, the one that has
long been seen as a fairly stable role model. This dynamic complicates the
generalization and universal validity of developments, which we observe
in political communication. For instance, in the United States there has
for a long time been consensus that the increase in political cynicism
and the decline of trust in government signify long-term trends that are
associated with the functions and political contents of television. The
“new” political realities since the terror attacks of September 11, 2001
put a question mark over the previous “wisdom” in the field of political
communication. David Swanson (Chapter 3, this volume) judges the
sizable increase in Americans’ trust in government as an indication that
the hitherto evident correlations between media contents and political

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