Page 66 - The Professionalisation of Political Communication Chaning Media, Changing Europe Volume 3

Political Communication.qxd 12/7/06 7:30 pm Page 63
Political Communication.qxd 5/1/07 15:05 Page 65

PROFESSIONALISATION OF POLITICS IN GERMANY | 63

These developments altogether challenge the political system,forcing it to adapt to the
changes in society and in the media market. On the one hand this means coping with
social differentiation, new values and unpredictable voters. On the other, a
commercialised media system and fragmented audiences compel the political system
to make greater efforts to gain the media’s and the public’s attention. The
professionalisation of politics is thus an inevitable consequence of these trends,
particularly visible in election campaigns where the share of power is at stake and
communication efforts increase.

The mediatisation of politics, in the sense that politics is ‘continuously shaped by
interactions with the mass media’ (Mazzoleni & Schulz, 1999) on the one hand and the
politicisation of the media on the other, has led to the emergence of an
‘interpenetration zone’ (Münch, 1997) between the political system and the media
system. This is where the interaction between political public relations and political
journalism takes place and thus political logic and media logic meet and mix. Both the
subsystem of the political system (political PR/publicity) and the journalism subsystem
(political journalism) still act under the constraints of their own system and according
to their logic, but through interaction and in order to achieve their goals, also integrate
the logic of the other. Actors on the part of the political publicity subsystem are
politicians who present themselves to the public as well as to their communication
managers and experts. Actors on the part of the journalism system are political
journalists. Political actors and journalists both have their own specific interests but are
dependent on each other for their attainment and therefore try to strategically
influence the other side (cf.Esser,2003).

So, with increasing difficulties in addressing the citizens, and the voters in particular,
and with the growing importance of the mass media, which was fostered by the
introduction of television and gained even more speed by its commercialisation,
political actors reacted by actively trying to shape the media’s presentation of politics
according to their own needs and to their own advantage.To increase their chances of
success, they started to adapt to the rules of the media and to perfect the packaging of
politics. In any case, this describes a process that developed over a longer period of
time and is still going on and, due to the influence of systemic variables, happens in
different countries in different ways and at different speeds.

CHANGES IN THE MEDIA SYSTEM Professionalisation of Politics in Germany
The post-war history of the German media system was marked by two developments.
The first was the introduction of television during the 1950s. The diffusion of the new
medium was somewhat slow. Television was only fully established when it reached
complete household coverage around 1980.The second caesura was the opening up of
the broadcasting market for commercial stations in the 1980s.This has led to quick and
far-reaching changes affecting those who provide the broadcasting content as well as
those who consume it. 65