Political Communication in Postmodern Democracy Challenging the Primacy of Politics

by Brants, Kees; Voltmer, Katrin

• ISBN13: 9780230243354
• ISBN10: 0230243355
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-02-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This edited collection examines the changing faces of political communication in contemporary democracy. Based on comparative investigations of recent trends in the Netherlands and Great Britain, the essays provide fresh insights and new empirical evidence into the public representation of media-centred politics.

Author Biography

Kees Brants is Senior Research Fellow at the University of Amsterdam's School of Communication Research and Professor of Political Communication at Leiden University, the Netherlands. He has published extensively in journals - including the often quoted Who's Afraid of Infotainment? -and has written and edited several books, mostly in Dutch but also in English, like The Media in Question (1998). His research interests cover political communication, journalism studies and media policy. Katrin Voltmer is Senior Lecturer of Political Communication at the Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds, UK. Her research interests include media influences on public opinion and the policy process, the relationship between journalists and their news sources, and the role of the media in democratic transitions. Recent books include Mass Media and Political Communication in New Democracies (2006) and Public Policy and the Mass Media: The Interplay of Mass Communication and Political Decision Making (with Sigrid Koch-Baumgarten, 2010).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Foreword; J.Blumler
Introduction; K.Brants & K.Voltmer
PART I: NEW APPROACHES TO POLITICAL COMMUNICATION
Audience democracy: an emerging pattern in post-modern political communication; J.de Beus
Representation and mediated politics: representing representation in an age of iron; S.Coleman
PART II: MEDIATIZATION – THE CHANGING POWER GAME BETWEEN POLITICS AND THE MEDIA
Mediatization and news management in comparative institutional perspective; R.Brown
Spin and political publicity: Effects on news coverage and public opinion; C.de Vreese & M.Elenbaas
Changes in political news coverage: personalization, conflict and negativity in British and Dutch newspapers; R.Vliegenthart, H.G.Boomgaarden & J.W. Boumans
A changing culture of political television journalism; J.Stamper & K.Brants
A question of control: journalists and politicians in political broadcast interviews; K.Voltmer & K.Brants
The elephant trap: politicians performing in television comedy; L.van Zoonen, S.Coleman & A.Kuik
PART III: DE-CENTRALIZATION – NEW FORMS OF CITIZENSHIP AND POLITICAL COMMUNICATION
Political consumerism as political participation?; J.Ward
The new frontiers of journalism: citizen participation in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands; T.Bakker & C.Paterson
The new cultural cleavage: immigration and the challenge to Dutch politics and media; P.Van Praag & M.Adriaansen
The mediation of political disconnection; S.Coleman, D.Morrison & S.Yates
'Voting is easy, just press the red button’: communicating politics in the age of Big Brother; V.Cardo
What’s reality television got to do with it? Talking politics in the net-based public sphere; T.Graham
Afterword; J.Corner
Index