Page 52 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini

populations are not integrated into traditional group-based structures
and because tensions over immigration lead to the defection of tradi-
tional adherents.
Whatever the exact connections among these forces, and whatever the
exact weights of their importance, these processes of change have taken
place to a significant degree in all of Western Europe. To a substantial
degree, they probably account for the shift toward catch-all political
parties marketing themselves to individual voters without strong ties to
collective organizations. In this sense, they probably account to a large
extent for the Americanization of European political communication.

THE ROLE OF THE MEDIA
It is clear that the mass media play an important role in this process of
political change; indeed, the increasing centrality of the mass media to
the process of political communication is central to the very definition
of Americanization or modernization in most discussions of political
change. Does media system change play an independent causal role in
this process? Or is it simply one effect of the processes of social change
previously noted? Most accounts of political change in Europe list media
system change as a significant and independent factor:
... [N]ew technologies and ... changes in the mass media ... have
enabled party leaders to appeal directly to voters and thereby un-
derminedtheneedfororganizationalnetworks ... (Mair1997,39).
Increasingly ... media have taken over [information and oversight
functions] because they are considered unbiased providers of in-
formation and because electronic media have created more conve-
nient and pervasive delivery systems. ... The growing availability
of political information through the media has reduced the costs
of making informed decisions (Flanagan and Dalton 1990, 240–2).

The mass media are assuming many of the information functions
that political parties once controlled. Instead of learning about an
election at a campaign rally or from party canvassers, the mass
media have become the primary source of campaign information.
Furthermore,thepoliticalpartieshaveapparentlychangedtheirbe-
haviorinresponsetotheexpansionofmassmedia.Therehasbeena
tendencyforpoliticalpartiestodecreasetheirinvestmentsinneigh-
borhood canvassing, rallies, and other direct contact activities, and

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