Page 37 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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Comparing Political Communication

news on public perception of issues and political orientations. In con-
trast, comparative studies attempt to gain insight into international news
flows and, in the truest sense of the word, images and pictures of the
world. One of the driving forces behind this research was, not least, the
debate in the 1970s about American cultural imperialism, which was
associated with the fear that the voices of the Third World were being
systematically overruled by the media of the First World (Chapters 2 and
16, this volume).
PatrickR¨ ossler(Chapter12,thisvolume)submitsacomparativestudy
of television news. Against the background of an appraisal of the relevant
concepts in television news research, he investigates the news geography
of television news across different countries. Even though the findings
highlightanewsgeographythatfocusesonthepoliticallydominantnews
centers and actors, the data reveal considerable variations and no conver-
gent patterns in international news coverage. Even within the countries
studied, the share of concurring reporting is incredibly low. This means
that comparative communication research has so far hardly managed to
supply empirical evidence for a balanced transnational development in
politicaltelevisionnews.Againstthisbackground,PatrickR¨ osslerrightly
calls for further studies and in particular for sustainable theoretical con-
cepts, which help to explain the divergent worldviews in television news.
In some countries the features of political news are directly implicated
with the “loss of credibility of politicians and ultimately political apathy”
(BlumlerandColeman2001,4).DavidSwanson(Chapter3,thisvolume)
discusses a series of studies, mainly from the United States, that connect
the contents of political news with growing cynicism of citizens toward
politicians and politics (Patterson 1993, 1996; Capella and Jamieson
1996,1997).However,withrespecttomediaeffectsinelectioncampaigns
comparative research can, in the meantime, show differentiated findings
that point to an American exception. R¨ udiger Schmitt-Beck (Chapter 13,
this volume) shows in his study that media effects on voting decisions
are in no way to be taken for granted nor do they become apparent in
all countries in the same way. In the Western European systems, where
significant proportions of the electorate still identify with a particular
political party, personal communication has a stronger influence on in-
dividual voting decision than does the mass media. If, therefore, strong
associations between media contents and political orientations are dis-
coveredin the United States, this is not least related to preexisting ori-
entations determined by political culture.

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