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9. POLITICAL COMMUNICATION EFFECTS 217

politicians and policymakers. The next section looks at recent research
concerned with improving the functioning of political processes. Finally,
we extend the normative standards of Gurevitch and Blumler (1990)
by integrating media effects research into a larger media performance
model.

THE BOUNDARIES OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

Defining the boundaries of political communication has become an
increasingly difficult task, as the contributions from a variety of disci-
plines and research traditions—including political science, psychology,
sociology, linguistics, rhetoric, and mass communication—have broad-
ened the focus of research. Whereas the study of political communication
once was confined to the relationship between print media use and vot-
ing choices, it has been expanded to other political aspects of communi-
cation as researchers incorporated additional facets of the communica-
tion process. The theoretical fermentation has been accentuated by the
development of new approaches to political communication research
and the use of multiple methods. Indeed, it has led to the recognition that
all facets of social behavior, including interpersonal relationships shown
on entertainment television programming, could be conceived of as
political.
For practical purposes, however, the boundaries of political communi-
cation must be narrowed. Generally speaking, political communication
involves the exchange of symbols and messages between political actors
and institutions, the general public, and news media that are the products
of or have consequences for the political system (Meadow, 1980). The out-
comes of these processes involve the stabilization or alteration of power.
For this chapter, the definition can be further narrowed by focusing on
symbols and messages exchanged via the mass media, particularly in
their news content.
Political communication effects are phenomena that have conse-
quences for the political system. Explanation of them involves attributing
the effect to some personal or institutional source of influence (e.g., a
political leader, advertising message, news media, or news story). Thus,
political effects of mass media are a subset of a larger set of political com-
munication effects. Effects can be manifested at the micro level of individ-
ual behavior, the intermediary level of political groups, or at the macro
level of the system itself. There are also effects that involve cross-level
relationships such as the impact of political institutions on individual
behavior or the process by which individual political sentiments become
translated into social policy. In addition, the term effect commonly implies