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178 | THE PROFESSIONALISM OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

the political party and to vote for its representatives; to profile political leaders; to
n the political party and to vote for its representatives; to profile political leaders; to
manage the political party image; to manage the daily political news flow in the media
manage the political party image; to manage the daily political news flow in the
and to collect information about people’s opinions.
media and to collect information about people’s opinions.
n For the unelected officials there is the peculiar need to rather steer away from the
exposure to the pressures of public communication and to guard the confidentiality
of their decision making processes.
n For the special interest lobbyists essential communicative activities are the finding
and using of direct channels to access decision makers and the provision of selected
pieces of information to politicians and citizens.
n For the citizens at large, communication serves their participation in deliberative
processes; their demand for the public accountability of political officeholders and
their search for information from political institutions and office holders.

In all the communicative activities of these stakeholders, professionals today play an
essential role.Yet, there is at present no empirical evidence to conclusively suggest that
professionalisation has definite effects on the democratic quality of modern societies.
Even so, there is sufficient reason for the kind of concern that constitutes the basis of
the current chapter.

THE PROFESSIONALISATION PROCESS
In a great number of European countries professionalisation refers to a process that is
linked to societal changes in the political process, in the performance of the mass
media, and in the mediatisation of politics. These changes are themselves linked with
the current modernisation processes as they develop in European societies.

As the preceding chapters describe, we find in most countries rather similar
The Professionalisation of Political Communication
developments such as the decline in membership of political parties and the
diminishing of party loyalties, the decreasing interest in voting, the centralisation of
communication activities in both government and political parties, and the growth of
cynicism among citizens. In this climate, professionalisation comes of age with ‘the rise
of direct-marketing methods, the proliferation of electronic channels, and the advent of
new opinion-assessment technologies’ (Blumler & Kavanaugh in Bennett & Entman,
2001,p.16).

The Dutch electronics firm Philips used for many years as its marketing slogan: ‘Let’s
make things better’. This seems to sum up what the earlier chapters say about
professionalisation: it is an effort to make things better. Better tends to be understood
as more rational, more effective, and more persuasive. The things that should be made
better are the mobilisation of voters, the targeting of electoral groups, the polling of
public opinion, the media presence of politicians, the efforts to get political messages
across through overt or covert methods, the coping with media logics, the restoration
of public trust in the political system,and the management of daily news.

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