Political communication involves how information spreads and influences politics. It is concerned with the effects of language and symbols used by leaders, media, and citizens on political cognitions, attitudes, and behaviors. Recent trends include the commercialization and fragmentation of media, increased globalization and interactivity, and the rise of social networks and digital tools in the political sphere. Research methods are evolving to study political communication online and cross-culturally.

1. Political
Communication
Presented by:
Umer Ikram

2. Politics
• Politics is “a process whereby a group of people, whose opinions or interests are initially
divergent, reach collective decisions which are generally regarded as binding on the
group, and enforced as common policy” (Miller,1987, p. 390)

3. Political communication
Political communication is a subfield of communication and political
science that is concerned with how information spreads and influences
politics and policy makers, the news media and citizens.

4. Political Communication
• Political communication is the process by which language and
symbols, employed by leaders, media, or citizens, exert intended
or unintended effects on the political cognitions, attitudes, or
behaviors of individuals or on outcomes that bear on the public
policy of a nation, state, or community.

5. Theoretical Master Terms
Reinforcements: The media strengthens existing opinions. People
consume media which supports their existing oulook
Agenda setting: Media Influence what we think, highly selective
coverage
Framing: Media decides that how an event is going to be narrated
Priming: Media influences how we interpret events

6. Relevant
Theories
Agenda Setting Theory
Cognitive dissonance
Democratic Peace Theory
Mediatization
Media Malaise Theory
Normative Theory – Four Theories of the Press
Propaganda Model
Social Darwinism
Social Responsibility Theory
Political economy

7. New Theoretical Models
• The Resonance Model
The resonance model anticipates that effects are contingent on the
degree of fit between campaign messages and prevailing attitudes.
New information intermingles with the old, and depending on the
chemistry, voters’ choices will or will not be affected

8. • The Strategic Model
This theoretical entry into political communication specifies campaign
effects as interactions but focuses instead on the competition between
message strategies. This perspective recognizes the ability of the
strategic interactions between the competing candidates and between
candidates and the press to create different campaign contexts.

9. Recent Trends in Political Communication
• Commercialization
Decline of public broadcasting and rise of for-profit media treating users
as consumers rather than citizens
• Fragmentation
More TV and Radio channels and more internet sites mean consumers
have an enhanced ability to download, stream and consume on
demand

10. Recent Trends in Political Communication
• Globalization
We now take for granted the almost immediate transmission of
newsworthy events around the world. Even the authoritarian
governments find it hard to isolate their population.
• Interaction
The most important developments in political communication has
increased interactivity

11. Research methods
• In political communication, research methods facilitate systematic
analyses of the press and public sphere, whether relying on
nonnumerical interpretation or quantitative inference, for the purpose
of discovering meaning and patterns in communication about politics.

12. Research has become a dynamic and rapidly evolving investigative
domain
Online data collection: Holds advantages in terms of convenience, cost,
and enhanced measurement capabilities but must be approached
carefully to avoid loss of generalizability
Portable platforms have brought more mobility and real-time capacity
valuable during elections and other live events.
Political communication research is expanding its international
perspectives and comparative approaches to research questions that
find ways to investigate common questions across diverse settings.

13. Political communication is digital sphere
The golden age of social networks
The third phase began in the middle of the first decade of the twenty-first century
and ends in the middle of the second decade. This is the era of social networking:
the era of Web 2.0 in the political-communication arena and all other
psychological-social-cultural-economic aspects of life (Dutton, 2008; Dubois and
Dutton 2013; Erikson 2008; Spaeth 2009).
Among the central questions raised during those years was whether the new
‘online society’ could change the balance of power between citizens and
government.

14. Political communication is digital sphere
The conquest of cyberspace
New aggregated changes in the political communication arena that
occurred during the last couple of years – mainly new ways of utilizing
digital tools for political purposes.
For example: Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He
turned his personal Twitter account into a primary channel of
communication and a highly efficient tool.

15. Four Central Phenomena of Digital age
• Politicians’ use of their personal social media accounts is gradually
becoming their main public work-tool: a leading arena for political
communication through which they communicate directly with their
millions of followers.
• The establishment media, in its traditional or online forms, comes
under attack and becomes the target of de-legitimization campaigns,
and call public to abandon them in favour of the direct
communication channels between voters and candidates or public
officials

16. Four Central Phenomena of Digital age
• Campaign managers and campaign specialists make more
sophisticated uses of Big Data and other digital tools and
platforms to shape public opinion as a way to influence election
outcomes
• The intentional weakening of the establishment press accompanied
by a rejection of most of the ethical standards to which the
mainstream media claims to adhere, chief among them was an
insistence on reliable, objective, and neutral information.

17. Fake news in digital sphere
Allcott and Gentzkow (2017) defined fake news to be ‘news articles
that are intentionally and verifiably false and could mislead readers’
Much of the content on the web is not created or produced by
traditional mechanisms of information generation. Every web user is a
potential content creator. A system of checks and balances has been
collapsing because there is no longer a process and no filters or
gatekeepers.

18. Concepts impacting Political Influence in
Digital age
Echo chamber: Phenomena by which ideas circulate in a closed system, and user
seeks out only those source of informations that confirms or amplify their values
Internet troll: Someone who deliberately tries to offend by posting inflammatory
and provocative comments
Bot: An application that runs automatics tasks on internet, including mass
distribution of political messages.
Post-truth: Idea that appeals to emotions and personal beliefs more influential in
shaping public opinion and public policy than objective facts