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Summary COM 3707 Study notes Political And Government Communication
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- University Of South Africa (Unisa)
COM 3707 Study notes - Political And Government Communication
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COM 3707 – POLITCAL & GOVERNMENTAL COMMUNICATIONUNIT 1: POLITICS IN THE AGE OF MEDIATION
Definition: political communication can be defined as pure discussion about the allocation of public
resources, official authority, and official sanctions. This includes verbal and written political rhetoric,
but not symbolic communication acts which have significance for the understanding of the political
process.
Political language: comprises not only rhetoric but paralinguistic signs such as body language, and
political acts such as boycotts and protests. What makes communication ‘political’ is not the source
of the message but its content and purpose.
Political communication = purposeful communication about politics
1. All forms of communication undertaken by politicians and other political actors for the
purpose of achieving specific objectives
2. Communication addressed to these actors by non-politicians such as voters and activists
3. Communication about these actors and their activities, as contained in news reports,
editorials, and other forms of media discussion of politics such as blogs and social media posts
Political actors: those individuals who aspire, through organizational and institutional means, to
influence the decision-making process, achieved by attaining institutional political power, in
government and constituent assemblies, through which preferred policies can be implemented.
Political parties: aggregates of likeminded individuals, who come together within an agreed
organizational and ideological structure to pursue a common goal. These goals will reflect the parties
underlying value system, or ideology.
Public organisations: non-party organisations with political objectives including consumer
associations, NGOs, and corporate lobby groups. Three categories: trade unions, consumer groups,
professional associations, and others may be defined as public organisations. They are united not by
ideology but by some common feature of their members situation which makes it advantageous to
combine.
Pressure groups: pressure groups are less institutionalized and more overtly political in their
objectives, concerned with such issues as the conservation of the natural environment, and the
prevention of cruelty to animals etc. they campaign around a single issue and draw a diverse support
and membership base.
Terrorist organisations: groups who use terror tactics to achieve their political objectives
The audience: the target of persuasive political communication, without which political messages are
irrelevant. Political communication is intended to have an effect on the receivers of the message.
The media: media organisations comprise of print, broadcasting and online channels. political actors
must use the media to have their messages communicated with the desired audience. Potential for
communication effectiveness can only be to the extent that the message is reported and received as
messages by the media audience.
, UNIT 2: POLITICS, DEMOCRACY AND THE MEDIA
The theory of liberal democracy
the defining characteristics of liberal democracy = constitutionality, participation, rational choice
- Constitutionality
there must be an agreed set of procedures and rules governing the conduct of elections, the
behavior of those who win them and the legitimate activities of dissenters. Such rules typically
take the form of a constitution or a bill of rights.
- Participation
Then those who participate in the democratic process must comprise of a substantial portion
of the people. Meaning all citizens need to have the right to vote and have access to political
positions.
- Rational choice
The availability of choice, and the ability for citizens to exercise that choice rationally. This
presupposes a knowledgeable and educated society.
Public opinion and the public sphere
The importance of an informed, knowledgeable electorate dictates that democratic politics must be
pursued in the public arena. The knowledge and information on the basis of which citizens will make
their political choices must circulate freely and be available to all. But democratic policies are public
in the sense that the political process demands that individuals act collectively in making decisions
about who will govern them. The private political opinions of the individual become the public opinion
of the people as a whole, which may be reflected in voting patterns and treated as advice by existing
political leaders.
The public sphere is the realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be
formed. Citizens behave as a public body when they confer in an unrestricted fashion, within the
guarantee of freedom of assembly and association and the freedom to express and publish their
opinions.
The public sphere comprises the communicative institutions of a society, through which facts and
opinions circulate and by means of which common stock of knowledge is built up as the basis for
collective political action.
This has been transformed due to mass media in three keyways:
1. Digitization
The great print and broadcast media of the 20th century has been replaced by digital
broadcasting, which utilizes coded bites of information sent via optic cables from A to B. this
has led to the growth of transnational and international news media. The rise of the internet
has further revolutionized digital media and the possibilities for digital communication.
2. Networking
National broadcasting network highlights a key feature of the digital media environment. It is
networked in the sense that communication is not vertically structured as top-down and on-
to-many but horizontally distributed across and via multiple hubs and nodes. The digital
, network permits users to interact with, participate in the production of and sharing of online
content. Social media platforms have become key sources of news and a key tool in which
people are enabled to share and debate that content.
3. Globalization
One clear consequence of digitalization and online networking is the globalization of the
public sphere. Previously political media was limited to the territory of a nation state. Digital
media are truly global platforms in that they are accessible to anyone anywhere on the planet
with access to the necessary technology.
The media and the democratic process
The five functions of the communication media in an ideal democratic society
1. Must inform citizens of what is happening around them
2. They must educate as to the meaning and significance of the facts
3. The media must provide a platform for public political discourse, facilitating the formation of
public opinion, and feeding that opinion back to the public whence it came. This must include
the provision of space for the expression of dissent, without which the notion of democratic
consensus would be meaningless.
4. To give publicity to governmental and political institutions, the watch dog role of journalism.
Public opinion can only matter/ have influence to the extent that the acts of whoever holds
supreme power are made available for public scrutiny, meaning how far they are visible,
ascertainable, accessible, and hence accountable. There must be a degree of openness
surrounding the activities of the political class if the public opinions of the people are to have
any bearing on decision-making.
5. The media in democratic societies serve as a channel for the advocacy of political viewpoints.
Parties require an outlet for the articulation of their policies and programmes to a mass
audience, and this the media must be open to them. Some media will actively endorse one or
other parties at sensitive times such as elections, This latter sense the medias advocacy
function may be viewed as persuasion.
Political discourse circulated by the media must be comprehensible to citizens, it must be
truthful, in the fact that it reflects the genuine and sincere intentions of the speakers. There
must be access to information and those who can be influenced by it must have access to
information.
, Democracy and the media: a critique
- The failure of education
One of the biggest broken failures of liberal democracy is the failure of the education system
to produce rational voters, a failure which is reflected in the growing political apathy
characteristics of democratic states. When those who have the right to vote refuse to do so,
democracy is clearly less than perfect. This could also be seen as a rational response in
societies where citizens feel as if their vote does not matter.
- Absence of choice
A further limitation on democracy is the absence of genuine choice or pluralism, especially in
the 21st century when many political parties share many core similarities. This leads to citizens
feeling no need to vote as either way it will be the same outcome in terms of policy and
decision making.
- Capitalism and power
the real power of capitalist societies is hidden behind formal political procedures. In
boardrooms of big business, in the higher reaches of the civil service and security apparatus,
in a host of secretive, non-elected institutions.
- The manufacture of consent
The legitimacy of liberal democratic government is founded on the consent of the governed.
The extent to which citizens are subject to manipulation, rather than exposed to the objective
truth, the integrity of the public sphere is diminished, and democracy loses its authenticity.
Creating a manufactured consent from the public, who are unaware of the truth and rather
vote based on propaganda and lies.
- The limitations of objectivity
A further criticism of the medias democratic role focuses on the professional journalistic ethic
of objectivity. This ethic developed with the mass media and has been assailed as
fundamentally unattainable. It is argued that the medias political reporting is biased and
flawed (subjective) as opposed to objective and partisan.
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