Page 92 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

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Hans J. Kleinsteuber

Corporation, which had been modeled on the BBC. In the previ-
ously Soviet camp, a largely similar understanding of the media as
a“collective agitator and propagandist” had been established. This
led to structurally similar media that were under the direction of
the respective Marxist-Leninist parties.
Temporality: A fundamental aspect of global modernization is
that processes do not take place simultaneously. The United States
has been a forerunner in many areas of the media in the past
decades (television, cable, computer, Internet, etc.). An analysis of
the developments in this country therefore allows a kind of insight
into one’s own foreseeable media future. In many fields the word
Americanizationisusedinthiscontext(seethefollowingtext),which
can be seen as a scientific concept and be tested. Other regions play
the role of forerunner for other areas, for example in mobile com-
municationthisrolegoestoNorthernEuropeorJapan.Temporality
means – colloquially speaking – that you don’t always have to go
back to reinvent the wheel.
Performance: If another country, which is more advanced as far

as certain developments are concerned, is systematically observed
with the intention of preparing for political (or commercial, etc.)
innovations at home, the concept of performance emerges. In
Germany, for example, since the year 2000 legislation on “Freedom
of Information,” which orients itself toward American, British, and
Scandinavian models, is being worked on. This is a sort of global
benchmarking for the best solution (performance). In this respect,
theworldappearstobeaglobalpoliticallaboratory.Theobservation
of the world has the purpose of political consultancy and the im-
plementation of the internationally most-promising specifications
and is thus limited to concrete goals.

Portraying the comparison of media systems can only be conducted by
way of examples. The emphasis lies on media systems and political com-
munication in this chapter. A systematic view is the focus here, that is, the
macro and, to an extent, the intermediate levels of the systems are at the
forefront. Individual actors on the micro level, for example journalists,
are dealt with in a different chapter (see Chapter 11, this volume). The
following sections are concerned with some examples of comparative
perspectives in various subdivisions: the theory of communication and
political communication; media systems and media politics; and media
transformation and media technology.

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