Page 16 - The Professionalisation of Political Communication Chaning Media, Changing Europe Volume 3

Political Communication.qxd 12/7/06 7:30 pm Page 13
Political Communication.qxd 5/1/07 15:05 Page 15

POLITICAL COMMUNICATION IN THE ERA OF PROFESSIONALISATION | 13

possibility of comparing practices and skills across frontiers and, generally, a greater
desire to improve practices so that they attain what is deemed to be the best at any
moment of time. Put differently, it is unlikely that any political groups would employ a
political consultant unless he or she was versed in the latest available techniques. 2

The idea of professionalisation takes from the idea of modernisation the knowledge
that functional differentiation is part of the process of change but it does not see this as
necessarily related to specific factors in contemporary political communication only. As
some of the chapters illustrate, those with skills in aspects of campaigning and political
communication – TV directors, organisers, PR experts – have been used at numerous
points in the past and in a context when political parties were still strong and the mass
media was anything but autonomous. One example of this would be from Britain with
evidence of advertisers being used by the Conservative Party during the 1950s when
political parties were still mass parties and television was very much in its infancy (see
chapter 3).Germany offers us another example:the Social Democrats used experts from
a group of advertisers affiliated to the party in the 1949 national election campaign.
Their competitors, the German Christian Democrats (CDU), soon overtook the SPD in
professionalising their strategies and in 1976 finally hired six advertising agencies to
work on different campaign channels (see chapter 4).

The underlying theme of this book, then, is that we need to understand developments
in political communication as part and parcel of a long and continuing process of
adaptation and change whereby the skills of those outside politics are increasingly
applied to the conduct of politics. But more than this, those who possess such skills –
the ‘professionals’ for the sake of argument – and the practices they advocate, in turn
come to influence those in politics. Politics then begins to change from the inside, as it
were, as the lessons of the world of commerce become internalised: political parties
become more professional in their activities, as do the politicians who are now much
more aware of the needs of proper communication skills,dress and manner.

SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES ACROSS COUNTRIES
In reviewing the chapters in this book, one becomes aware that all the authors have
identified similar processes of changes in their societies and in the media system even
if, at the same time, they stress differences not only between the US and Europe, but Political Communication in the Era of Professionalisation
also amongst European countries themselves.This can be seen not only in the level and
speed of modernisation of societies, media systems, and subsequently, political
communication practices, but also in the different elements of professionalisation of
political communication that have been analysed.Some chapters pay more attention to
the professionalisation of campaigning (Italy, Greece, Germany), whilst others place
more emphasis on professionalisation of particular governments’ communications
management infrastructure (the Netherlands, Sweden). But in both cases, we see those
skilled in communications and marketing entering the field of politics. However, this
does not mean that professionals from communications and marketing dominate the 15