Page 73 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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Transnational Trends in Political Communication

necessarily undermines local viewpoints and political cultures, and thus
leads to acceptance everywhere of a recognizable modern model of polit-
icalcommunication.Thesedevelopmentsandtheirimplicationsforhow
we understand political communication are discussed in the following
text.

Seasons of Trust, Seasons of Cynicism
As noted, some common forces have been discovered to be acting on
media institutions and systems in most nations. These forces include in-
tensified competition for audiences in an arena in which more television
viewers, especially, have ready access to more choices than ever before,
including in many countries choices of broadcasts that originate in other
countries or are offered by transnational services. The need to compete
for audiences has been cited as leading both private and public broad-
casters to adopt approaches to journalism that are more commercial, in-
fusing news decisions and the content of news stories with entertainment
values to a greater extent than before. In this way, broadcast journalists
endeavor to increase the audiences for their newscasts to include more
viewers who lack an abiding interest in public affairs and current events
but may be attracted to stories that are entertaining in their own right.
This development has been documented extensively in television news
coverage of politics and government in many countries (e.g., Franklin
1997; Mazzoleni and Schulz 1999; Neveu 1999).
At the same time, other broad forces have been thought to be shaping
institutions of politics and government in many countries. As we have
seen, these forces have been thought to undermine citizens’ traditional
loyalties and sense of identification with political parties. In turn, po-
litical parties have turned to marketing approaches to win the support
of voters at election time and to maintain the approval of citizens when
the parties are in government. One element of the marketing approach
is use of strategies to manipulate journalists to give to politicians the fre-
quent and favorable coverage that is thought to be essential to political
success. As politicians’ efforts to orchestrate news coverage have become
more sophisticated and successful, journalists have struggled to assert
their independence in a style of political news that is more adversarial
and disdainful of politicians. The result has been a trend in numer-
ous countries toward political journalism that is less concerned with
reporting politicians’ actions and statements but more concerned with
exposing the political motives behind what politicians do and say. In this
way, many believe, news about politicians has become more negative

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