Page 75 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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Transnational Trends in Political Communication

In the United States, the seeming irreversibility of public cynicism
was called into question in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001
terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the
Pentagon in Washington, DC. Within a matter of days, the American
public evinced a striking reversal of its attitudes toward politics and
government. Confidence in government, in governmental leaders, and
especially in the military rose dramatically. A study among university
students conducted by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics in mid-
October, 2001 – historically members of the cohort of young voters
who feel most alienated from traditional politics – found that 75 percent
trustedthemilitarytodotherightthing,69percenttrustedthepresident,
and 62 percent trusted the Congress. Fully 77 percent said that politics
is relevant to their lives, compared to 68 percent who gave the same
response a year earlier. And 60 percent trusted the federal government
to do the right thing all or most of the time, compared to only 36 percent
who trusted the federal government in the 2000 survey.
Elevated levels of trust and confidence in government may reflect only
a momentary response to a national crisis. We are not yet far enough
removed from the September 11 attacks to know whether the long-term
trend toward rising cynicism will be affected. And, the example of the
short-term U.S. response to terrorist attacks does not make a compelling
case for a more general proposition about whether or not high levels of
cynicism are irreversible. Speaking to the more general question, Karol
Jakubowicz observed during Poland’s transition to democracy that “the
media’sinfluenceonelectionresultsisininverseproportiontothegravity
of issues facing the voters, the stakes involved for them personally in the
election” (1996, 135).
The issue raised by these developments is this: Perhaps it is the case
that, in times of broad national consensus over goals and aspirations,
when there are no internal or external crises, the marketing strategies
that mass parties use to attempt to create political interest and the dis-
dainful practices by which journalists cover these strategies fuel public
cynicism and skepticism. These are also times during which most mem-
bers of the public have little interest in politics and follow the actions
of government and leaders with only casual interest except when those
actions affect individual citizens directly. But maybe things change when
a genuine crisis presents itself, or when the national consensus breaks
down and real, substantive disagreements polarize the public. At such
times, perhaps the trends in political communication that have seemed
irreversible do indeed reverse themselves, at least for a time. Put another

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