Political Communication

Communication is at the heart of politics; without interaction, discussion, conciliation and persuasion there would be no legitimacy in the actions of political organisations. The 21st Century is an era of both mass and personalised communication. While much political communication travels along secure lines between agents of states, it also echoes around parliamentary chambers, is reported in the media and then remediated by the users of social platforms and weblogs. Communication developments, and the intersections between old and new communication environments, raise some very important questions about the linkages between political actors, from supranational to the individual, and the citizen. At the broadest level we can enquire of the state of the political public sphere and how discussion and debate is encouraged by institutions and the extent of public participation. We can enquire how the cultures of spin and personalisation impact upon the media framing of politics and what impacts may exacted upon citizen engagement. News media are a central player in contemporary western democracies; arguably they are also central to facilitating a public sphere. Yet their precise influence on both elite political actors and the public at large require deeper investigation. What is the precise role of the media in the political agenda-setting process across countries? Do mass media inform or titillate? The mass media face a range of challenges, from the media management and media bypassing strategies of political organisations to competition from online start-ups; how are these dealt with and with what potential or actual impact for the political public sphere? New technologies are also playing an increasingly key role in the permanent and electoral campaigns of political parties as well as generally raising awareness of a range of organisations and causes. Is there evidence that such tools engage different audiences in politics, or are they simply tools for mobilising the already engaged? Do new media act as a gateway to participation? Or is it simply politics as usual in terms of institutional and citizen’s modes for political communication, and which citizens become engaged. This section seeks to encourage academics from a range of fields across political communication to consider these questions and, drawing on recent empirical work, to offer some indications about the future of civic society. The panels within the section will pose the bigger questions regarding civic engagement and participation through studies of a range of contexts, from the European Parliamentary elections to the Scottish Referendum in order to identify new trends in political communication, its reception and new directions for political communication research.