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this. They adapted their campaign strategies to the necessities of a mediatised
environment even though, when they entered the political scene during the 1980s,
their declared objective was to avoid any personalisation and to put the issues first.
Over the years, however, the Greens had to come to terms with some of their politicians
becoming more popular than others and taking a more central role in the media, and
therefore they finally succumbed to the necessities of a personalised strategy.While the
Greens started with some personalised elements in the 1998 campaign, they openly
declared several of their leading politicians as their top candidates and concentrated
much of their campaign on their star politician Joschka Fischer.

These, in brief, are the main themes of this book. It sets out to explore the
professionalisation of political communication in particular countries in order to
identify the processes which are now impacting on the conduct of politics in the 21st
Century.

NOTES
1. One of the arguments developed in chapter 2 is that what is deemed ‘rational’ and
‘appropriate’ may be time bound, so that what is ‘appropriate’ for the 1950s may not be so for
the 1990s.Hence,what is deemed to be ‘appropriate’professional behaviour is never fixed.
2. This is a separate point from the reasons why such practices might take root. Swanson and
Mancini argue that campaign innovations are more likely to develop when political parties
are weak, and when the media emerge as independent forces in political communication.
(1996,p.254)
3. He has acquired this name because of the close similarity between the two Italian phrases:
sua eminenza (his eminence), a phrase usually used to refer to cardinals , and sua emittenza,
(his broadcaster)

The Professionalisation of Political Communication
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