BPR 323

POLITICS OF COMMUNICATION AND

PROPAGANDA
 WEEK 1
INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

SUBTOPICS:
 What is political communication?
 Cultural definition
 What is Propaganda?
 Techniques of propaganda
 WHAT IS POLITICAL COMMUNICATION?

• Its about how voters respond to communication in elections,

how parties market their appeals in a campaign, how the press
covers this or that prominent issue and how the polls tracked
opinion move over a certain period
( BLUMLER 2009).
• It encompasses the role of communication in the political life
in the fullest sense, the media, opinion polls, marketing and
publicity, with special emphasis on electoral periods.
• It is a three-legged stool involving both the mutual adoptions
and the opposed interests of political advocates, professional
mediators and electoral
• All political messages emanate from firmly structured political
communication systems. In other wards political
communication is an interactive process concerning the
transmission of information among politicians, the news
media and the public.
CULTURAL DEFINITION
It’s studies the interactions between media and
political systems locally, nationally and internationally
including;
 The political content of media-reporting of news and
current affairs value systems that prevail in particular
community.
 The actors and agencies involved in the production of
that content. And the nature of relationship between
journalists and politicians
 The impact of media contents on their audience or
readers, whether the general public, government, or
political elites.
 Or impact on policy-making process more generally as
well as the role the media performs in framing issues
in audience perception.
WHAT IS PROPAGANDA?
• Propaganda surrounds us everywhere…..
• Are your thoughts your own?
• It’s not just politics!
• Propaganda is a form of communication to
distribute information. It is always biased. The
information is designed to make people feel a
certain way or to believe a certain thing. The
information is often political. It is hard to tell
whether the information is true or false.
 TECHNIQUES OF PROPAGANDA
• Loaded Words: Words have power when it comes to
public relations, and it’s no surprise that many
propagandists use a technique involving loaded words
to sway public opinion. When attempting to convince
the public to act, propagandists may use excessively
positive words or those with agreeable associations.
• Transfer: Propagandists may attempt to associate two
unrelated concepts or items in an effort to push what
they’re selling to the public. With the technique of
transfer, propagandists conjure up either positive or
negative images, connect them to an unrelated concept
or item, and try to move the public to take action.
• Unreliable Testimonial: Propaganda can hinge on the
ability of an unrelated person to successfully sell an
idea, opinion, product, or action. In modern day
advertising, companies may enlist celebrities to help
sell their products as part of their public relations
efforts.
TECHNIQUES OF PROPAGANDA CONT.
• Bandwagon: This common propaganda technique is
used to convince the public to think, speak, or act in
a particular way simply because others are. The
public is invited to “jump on the bandwagon” and
not be left behind or left out as the rest of society
engages in what they perceive to be correct
behavior.
• Snob Appeal: This technique involves convincing the
public to behave in ways that are agreeable to the
propagandists and serve their purposes. In order for
this technique to be successful, propagandists have
to first position themselves as having a product, idea
or opinion that is worthy of elite status,
• Vague Terms: Propagandists sometimes achieve
their goal of swaying public opinion simply by using
empty words.
 WEEK 2
IMPORTANCE OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

SUBTOPICS:
Importance of political communication
Key actors of political communication
 Media
 The audience
 Political parties
Non–party actors
IMPORTANCE OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION
• Enhances Clarity: Political communication
provides clarity on a particular issue. In doing so,
voters have more of an understanding of where
political campaigns stand on the issues, which
can help them form their own opinion.
• Helps with building a coalition: There is strength
in numbers. To gain influence and get others
behind a cause, bill or program, communication
is key.
IMPORTANCE OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION CONT.

• The decline in allegiance means that the ideological

profile of events is Up for “grabs”
• Public understanding of issues and events become
more negotiable and central/fundamental/vital.
• The essentialness of the media in communication
process means that the mediated profile of events is
both more negotiable and central.
• Politicians and political parties use the mass media as a
mediation of their relationship with the public instead
of party and parliament.
• Political communication has increased the importance
of communications professionals in political planning,
and upgrading the level of resources devoted to
communications.
KEY ACTORS OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION
• MEDIA: Politicians and the media are engaged in
a largely interdependent relationship, with the
public representing a primary target, through
which both actors seek to advance their
interests.
• Media systems shaped by political parallelism,
media operate under a high degree of
partisanship and pursue open political
objectives. Moreover, in the course of a
mediatization of political communication, they
are increasingly imposing their conditions and
rules on political actors who are forced to rely on
media to obtain electoral success.
KEY ACTORS OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION
• VOTERS ( AUDIENCE):
• The audience for a particular political
communication may be broad, as in a billboard
advertisement or a US election ‘spot’, where the
objective is to persuade an entire nation of voters.
• It may be narrow, as when the editorial of a
leading newspaper ‘of record’, such as the Daily
Monitor News paper in Uganda , calls on the
NRM party to change its leadership (or to retain it,
as the case may be).
• The audience may be both broad and narrow, as
in the case of government calling on people to
relocate from flooded areas.
KEY ACTORS OF COMMUNICATION CONT.

POLITICAL PARTIES:
• Are established political organisation i.e. the
aggregates of more or less like-minded individuals,
who come together within an agreed organisational
ideological structure to pursue common goals.
• These goals will reflect the party’s underlying value
system, or ideology, such as the British
Conservative Party’s adherence to ‘individual
freedom’ and the supremacy of the market; or
their Labour opponents’ preference for ‘capitalism
with a human face’ and the principles of social
justice and equality.
• For parties, clearly, the smooth functioning of the
process described above is dependent primarily on
their ability to communicate with those who will
vote for and legitimise them.
NON –PARTY POLITICAL ACTORS

 Trade unions, consumer groups and professional

associations.
• They are united not by ideology but by some common
feature of their members’ situation which makes it
advantageous to combine, and work to solve
particular problems (trade unions), and campaign for
change by seeking elected politicians support.
• These organisation use a variety of strategies to
influence political environment, such as lobbying and
advertising.
Terrorist organizations
 These are persons who use unlawful violence and
intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit
of political aims. These groups use violence as a
means of ‘persuasion to make their activities known
to the public.
 WEEK 3
DEMOCRACY AND MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM

SUBTOPICS
Normative theories of democracy
• Direct democracy
• Liberal Democracy
• Deliberative Democracy
Siebert et. Al. (1956) old four theories of the Press
and politics
• Authoritarian theory
• Libertarian theory
• Social responsibility theory
• Soviet communist theory
NORMATIVE THEORIES OF DEMOCRACY

Direct Democracy
 In a direct democracy, which is also called pure
democracy the decisions are not taken by
representatives. All decisions are voted on by the
people. When a budget or law needs to be passed,
then the idea goes to the people.
Liberal Democracy
 Liberal democracy advocates call for a free,
competitive press, in which a thousand flowers-roses
and daisies, but also weeds and underbrush-bloom.
 It emphasizes a system of democracy that preserves
individual liberties and disdains government
intervention.
 Censorship is seen as problematic and unnecessary.
NORMATIVE THEORIES OF DEMOCRACY CONT.

• Here argument is that politics should not focus

simply on protecting the rights of individuals, but on
discovering ways to enhance the collective good of
society.
• They urge for an imaginative rethinking of democracy
offering a new kind of participation, one that not only
gives citizens more power, but also allows them more
opportunities to exercise this power.
• Deliberation advocates argue that we need more civil
and respectful public dialogues, such as community
forums that can help set agendas and shape public
policy.
SIEBERT (1956) PRESS THEORIES AND POLITICS

Authoritarian theory
• Direct state control with the media
• Associated with pre-democratic societies
• Strong sanctions against media channels
which are not ‘obedient’
The Soviet (communist) theory
• State control with the media however, also
limited journalistic autonomy.
• Media accountable to the public.
SIEBERT (1956) PRESS THEORIES AND POLITCS
CONT.

LIBERTARIAN THEORY
• Emphasis on individual rights (cf. John Milton,
England 17th century).
• The media is fully independent.
• Emphasis on the critical role (watchdog role) of the
media is important.
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
• The media do not only have rights, but also
responsibilities.
• The media have a particular responsibility for
minorities.
• The journalist is accountable for both the public, the
state and society.
 WEEK 4
DEMOCRACY AND MEDIA COMMUNICATION
SYSTEMS CONT.
SUBTOPICS:
Hallin and Mancini (2004) new model of media
and politics
 Liberal model
 Democratic Corporatist model
 Polarised model
Joseph Campbell 2003 theories of the African
Press and politics
HALLIN AND MANCINI (2004) NEW MODEL OF MEDIA
AND POLITICS

This model focuses on:

• The structure of media markets (readership,
ownership etc.)
• Political parallelism (i.e. to what extent the media
outlets mirror the political configuration)
• Professionalism (weak or strong)
• The role of the state (in policy, regulation etc)
Liberal model
• Early development of press freedom
• Newspapers used to have good circulation, but
struggling today
• Commercial newspapers dominate
• Information-oriented journalism dominated (though
stronger Commentary tradition in the UK)
HALLIN AND MANCINI (2004) MEDIA
MODELS AND POLITICS CONT.
DEMOCRATIC CORPORATIST MODEL
• Very high newspaper circulation
• History of strong party newspapers, but diminishing
• Party press exist together with commercial press
• Legacy of commentary journalism persists, though
growing emphasis on neutral professionalism,
objectivity.
• Journalistic professionalism high.
• High degree of formal organization.
• Media seen as social institutions which states have
responsibility for.
• Relatively strong state support for and regulation of
media.
• Professional autonomy in broadcasting is high.
 HALLIN AND MANCINI (2004) MEDIA
MODELS AND POLITICS CONT.
Polarised Model
• Elite-oriented press with relatively small
circulation.
• Freedom of the press came late
• Newspapers often marginal and in need of subsidy.
• Political parallelism tends to be high.
• The press marked by commentaries and advocacy
journalism.
• Instrumentalization of the media by the
government.
• Professionalization of journalism not strongly
developed.
• Journalism not strongly differentiated from political
activism autonomy of journalism often limited.
JOSEPH CAMPBELL 2003 THEORIES OF AFRICAN PRESS
AND POLITICS
VANGAURD
• Press underlines how pro-independent news papers led
the struggle for political and economic liberation.
SUBSEVIENT
• After independence leaders advocated for the role of the
press.
• A press that serves as a servant of the state or a press that
mobilizes the population for socio-economic development.
• Is a media or public communication system that is widely
regarded as an essential element of development
journalism
• The brand that promotes positive news and advocates
collaboration between the state and the media.
• The media is expected to champion political reform and
serve as a catalyst for change.
 JOSEPH CAMPBELL 2003 THEORIES OF AFRACAN
PRESS AND POLITICS CONT.
Clandestine
• Has it roots in anti colonial struggle is similar to underground
press or what is also referred to as guerrilla journalism in
Nigeria in the 1990.
• It is a kind of underground journalism that resists authority.
• Engages in healthy, strong and constructive criticism of
military dictators and political leaders.
Development journalism
• It is journalism that use all journalistic skills to report
development processes in an interesting fashion.
• One perspective is a form of journalism practices in
developing countries where the media are expected to serve
instruments for national building.
• As a facilitators of national economic development through
provision of information that contributes to reduction in
hunger, illiteracy and poverty.
 WEEK 5
IMPACT OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION VOTERS
SUBTOPICS
• Agenda setting
• Elements of Agenda Setting
• Priming
AGENDA SETTING
• It is difficult to understand the impact of mass media
coverage of political processes without reference to
the position theories such as agenda setting and
priming.
• Even though agenda setting and priming can and have
been studied separately, both are excellent theories in
which to study together, because agenda setting
theory is primarily concerned with the transfer of
object salience, while priming scholars tend to
investigate how agenda setting affects public opinion.
• Put succinctly, the agenda setting theory explains the
initial step of the comprehensive media effects model
(McCombs, 2004).
• An agenda is defined as an issue or event that is
“viewed at a point in time as ranked in a hierarchy of
importance”(Rogers & Dearing, 1988, p. 555)
AGENDA SETTING CONT.
• It asserts that news media gives certain issues of
the day greater and more prominent coverage than
others.
• It is these issues that their viewers, readers and
listeners will regard as most important and most in
need of government action.
• Political scientist Bernard Cohen (1963) noted that
“the press is significantly more than a purveyor of
information and opinion. It may not be successful
much of the time in telling people what to think,
but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers
what to think about”
ELEMENTS OF AGENDA SETTING
• The quality or frequency of reporting.
• Prominence given to the reports-headlines display,
layout, timing on radio and TV set.
• The degree of conflict generated in the reports
• Cumulative media-specific effects over time.
When Is agenda-setting most likely to be effective
in influencing the public?
• Need for orientation
• News play.
• Partisan media
• Political system
PRIMING THEORY
• Asserts that whenever media content activates a
concept in people’s mind, they will tend to use it in
other relevant contexts.
• Priming is a psychological concept that describes
the way that a prior stimulus influences reactions
to a subsequent message.
• It stipulates that concepts are connected to related
ideas in memory by what are called associative
pathways.
• When one idea is piqued or aroused by a message,
it activates related concepts, producing a chain
reaction.
• Uganda when people primed by stories focusing on
national economy after the presidential election as
per A4C/4GC in 2012, subjects expressed their
disappointment with the NRM government policies.
PRIMING THEORY CONT.

HOW THE PRIMING THEORY WORKS:

• The issues that the media happen to be covering
at a particular time are communicated to voters.
• Voters then decide the most important issues
facing the country.
• With these issues at the top of their political mind-
sets, people call on them and decide to evaluate
the president based on the chief executive’s
performance in handling these particular
problems.
WEEK 7: FRAMING
SUBTOPICS:
Framing
• Political dimensions context of frames
• Frame construction in democratic countries
• Frame construction in non–democratic countries
POLITICAL DIMENSIONS CONTEXT OF FRAMES
• All issues in society are framed in materials that
suggest how it has risen, why it is important and
implications of tracking it in certain ways rather
than others.
• A strike can be reported in terms of the grievances
that provoked it or of the resulting disruption of
public services.
• Frames in “political communication constantly rest
on symbols, endorsements, and links to partisanship
and ideology”.
• Gamson & Modigliani (1987,1989) and Shah et al.
(2002) illustrate that, a frame in communication
validates reality, by providing significance to an
unfolding viewpoints, by upholding particular
classifications, meanings and interpretations of
political issues of the day over others.
POLITICAL DIMENSIONS CONTEXT OF FRAMES
• Framing operates at three levels, i.e. “by making
new beliefs available about an issue, making certain
available beliefs accessible, and making beliefs
applicable or strong in people evaluations”.
Political dimensions context of frames:
• Political context and dimensions is an important
factor that shapes the media framing of various
forms of political issues.
• Regime type, international or domestic
perspectives.
• The degree of elite consensus.
• The degree of policy uncertainty, whether or not a
conflict takes place within an institutionalised
setting, and the stage of democratisation.
• Media framing influences political outcomes.
FRAMES CONSTRUCTION IN DEMOCRATIC
COUNTRIES
• The coverage of election campaigns follows elaborate
rules that aim to provide a level playing field for the
competition of political candidates and/or political parties.
• The ‘game frame’ interprets elections from the perspective
of sports contests or horse races: being contests with
uncertain results, elections have high news value.
• Journalists’ focus on strategies, puts emphasis on the
politicians’ opportunistic motives as opposed to a
substantive policy agenda.
• Such strategic (as opposed to issue-based) coverage
increases political cynicism, which undermines the quality
of democracy (Cappella and Jamieson, 1997).
• Media framing of political struggles in democracies
involves conflicts in which non-elites and political
outsiders feature as key conflict parties, in the form of
popular protests and social movements.
FRAME CONSTRUCTION IN NON DEMOCRATIC
COUNTRIES
• Non-democratic regimes rely on the news media as
one of many instruments to preserve their power.
• These regimes include authoritarian regimes such as
non-communist regimes of Southern Europe, South
America and East Asia before the ‘third wave’, and
China’s regime today as well as African countries
today.
• The narrative of economic development and
modernisation is often strategically deployed, and
relayed through the media, to boost the legitimacy
of non-democratic rulers.
• In decades after de-colonisation in Asia and Africa,
the frame of the anti-colonial struggle remained a
powerful vehicle for boosting the legitimacy of non-
democratic rulers, who often equalled opposition to
their rule with disloyalty to the state.
FRAME CONSTRUCTION IN NON DEMOCRATIC
COUNTRIES CONT.
• The media frame strategy of most non-democratic
regimes in dealing with political opposition and
popular protest in general is to promote the ‘law and
order’ frame.
• Some regimes frame and deal with all protests in the
same way – both anti-regime protests and those that
feature particularise demands of industrial workers,
ethnic minorities and other groups; other regimes
take pains to co-opt some groups for ideological and
other reasons, which is reflected in their media
framing.
• Media take part in the broader authoritarian
manipulation package that aims less at mobilising
loyalty among the public and more at undermining
alternatives to non-democratic rule.
 WEEK 8
POLITICAL COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGN STRATEGY
SUBTOPICS
• Political marketing as political strategy
• Modelling political marketing
• Market-orientation strategy
• Political Marketing Stakeholder Model
• Relationship Marketing
POLITICAL MARKETING AS A POLITICAL STRATEGY
• Elections campaigns are the essence of democracy,
the process by which citizens grant their consent to
be governed is the mechanism that confers legitimacy
on democratic government.
• They provide avenues for deliberation and
opportunities to debate diverse solutions to the
nation’s problems.
• Elections produce marriages of convenience that can
result in quick divorces, breeding resentment and
apathy.
• Political marketing has led to a model that explains
how marketing can be tailored within political
context.
• Political marketers collect market intelligence,
develop media management strategies and
narrowcast messages to specific voter’s groups.
MODELLING POLITICAL MARKETING
• Marketing evolved through three distinct phases
of, product, sales and market orientation.
• Market orientation is the way an organization
positions itself and its products in relation to the
consumer.
• In politics market orientation is followed with
propaganda model relying on exposure to voters.
The idea is the product will gain support(sales) if
voters (customers) are made aware of its
availability.
• Market orientation recognizes that there are
multiple audiences for political products
• As a result policies are developed and designed,
and party positioned to suit the preference of the
voters to achieve electoral victory.
MARKET–ORIENTATION STRATEGY
• The model is useful in considering the tasks a
modern political party may be undertaking in
developing a strategy for an election campaign.
• First stage involves collection of data that aids
policy development. Research voter’s attitudes
towards party or candidate and voters concerns.
• Second stage involves product development or
design (encompassing the policy, leader and brand
image).
• Third stage involves positioning product in relation
to competition. Competition research is central to
this stage to compare the strengths, weakness,
opportunities and threats that exist within any
contest for both the organisation and key
competitors.
POLITICAL MARKETING STAKEHOLDER MODEL

• Is based on five attributes which are power,

legitimacy, urgency, relationship and value.

• The model looks at the importance of the value

that stakeholders seek to exchange in an actor-to-
actor relationship which typifies that which is
already seen in public affairs.
• The nature of stakeholders in a political exchange
allows a picture to be constructed of how a certain
stakeholder, or group of stakeholders, may behave
in one country as compared to another.
RELATIONSHIP MARKETING

• Emphasis is placed on a long-term interactive

relationship that is beneficial to both actors in the
exchange which is supported by marketing
activities.
• The model concentrates on two primary activities:
attracting the customer and then building and
enhancing that relationship over a long period of
time.
• One of the most important activities marketers use
in relationship marketing are loyalty programmes.
• Loyalty programmes can be as simple as a card
stamped and then rewarding a customer with a free
product based on frequency of usage.
 WEEK 9:
POLITICAL COMMUNICATION STRATEGY CONT.
SUBTOPICS
Structural Model

• Political branding
• Candidate branding
• Party branding
• Marketing strategies for positioning political
products
Process model
• Value defining process
• Value aggregating
 STRUCTURAL MODEL
• Involves political branding, nature of the product
i.e. party and candidate, and the market
positioning.
 Political branding.
• A brand is a symbolic entity character.
• Brand name and logo are identifiers of a
manufacturer or political party.
• Thus act as cues to invoke strong emotional
reactions among the voters.
• Voters are able to rank the brand in relationship to
competition of what is desirable about the product.
• However, as political product are intangible, there
are more linked to ideology and representation in
particular.
 STRUCTURAL MODEL CONT.

Candidate branding
• Values, competence, resources, past record, future
plans and degrees of independence from party line
have become key strategies for marketing candidates
to voters.
Party branding
• Political parties earn symbolic equity due to their
attachment to values shared with their loyal voters.
• Values enable parties to earn symbolic equity that
eventually enable parties to appeal to voters thus
developing a base of loyal voters.
• Party branding in current times, also involves
rebranding to ensure that parties respond to the
new public perception.
• The challenge is that rebranding can make the party
 STRUCTURAL MODEL CONT.
Marketing strategies positioning political
products
• Amateurism and Volunteers: Volunteers are more
likely to be reduced to carrying out low level tasks
at the instruction of professionals than
participating in local policy level discussions and
debates.
• In developed democracies volunteers have be
replaced by marketing professionals.
• Social dimension of work. Its fulfilled through
conferences, conventions and other quasi social
events.
 PROCESS MODEL
Value defining process
• Involves establishing or affirming core and
aggregating competing claims.
• It is important to establish, renew, and refine core
values.
• Core value: the most important part of a thing.
• Politics is about reconciling claims for state action
that are competitive.
• Core values often are about class, religion or ethnic
identity. For example the Democratic party in Uganda
is for truth, peace and justice
PROCESS MODEL CONT.

Aggregating values
• Party core values that revolves Justice and language
usually needs to reconcile the interests of farmers,
consumers or of employers and employees.
• Encourage wide participation and establish
consensus.
• Parties are a reflection of their full time employees.
• Secondly candidate selection is part of the value
developing process.
 WEEK 10
ADVERTISING AND POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

SUBTOPICS
• Characteristics of advertising
• Types of Political ads
• Functions of political ads
• The shrinking spot
• The rise of image
• Myth and symbol
CHARACTERISTICS OF ADVERTISING
• Political advertising is increasingly funded by outside
political groups.
• Money is shelled out on political advertising now than
ever before.
• Political advertising is mainly negative. Such
advertising offer comparisons between the
candidates and other direct attack on the opponent’s
character.
• Ads are typically of high production value, using
evocative images, music, and compelling
cinematography to create moods.
• The purchase and timing of ads have become more
strategic, with a strong emphasis on both
conventional and interactive technologies.
 TYPES OF POLITICAL ADS
• Talking heads, where candidates speak directly into
the camera;
• Testimonials, in which credible individuals speak for or
against the political candidate; and
• Issue ads, where candidates explain what they will
do, if elected, or have accomplished during their
terms of office.
• Negative ads focus on the negative aspects of the rival
candidate.
• Positive ads look at positive aspects of candidate
Functions of Political Advertising.
• The political process is supposed to involve rational
choices by voters, which must be based on
information.
• Journalism represents one important source of such
FUNCTIONS OF POLITICAL ADVERTISING CONT.

• Signification of meaning. Manufacturers create a

commodity by endowing raw materials with ‘use-
value’ (or utility).
• The advertiser gives it ‘exchange-value’, which will be
based partly on utility, but also on its meaning as a
distinctive entity in a status-conscious world.
• Baudrillard mentions products having ‘sign-value’, in
so far as they ‘are at one use-value and exchange-
value. The social hierarchies, the individual
differences, the privileges of caste and culture which
they support, are encountered as profit, as personal
satisfaction, as lived as “need”’ .
• Advertising functions by making commodities mean
something to their prospective purchasers; and by
doing this in a manner which connects with the
desires of the consumer.
THE SHRINKING SPOT AND THE RISE OF IMAGE

The shrinking spot

• Political ads have tended to become shorter in
duration.
• The advertising campaign in USA have seen the
introduction of five-minute advertisements,
sandwiched between popular entertainment
programmes in an effort to benefit from the latter’s
large audience share.
• Candidates also buy airtime in 30-minute chunks,
which are then used to elaborate at length on their
policy positions.
The rise of Image
• Greater emphasis is placed on the construction of
the candidate’s image (or the destruction of an
opponent’s), and away from the communication of
an issue or policy position.
 MYTH AND SYMBOL

• Advertisements have become steadily more image-

oriented, rather than issue-oriented, in terms of
what they say about the candidates they are selling,
it is also true that ads have become more symbolic,
or mythological.
• The political advertiser should not seek to win a
presidential vote by packing a spot with rational
information about policy. Rather, the fears, anxieties
and deep rooted desires of a culture should be
uncovered and tapped into, and then associated
with a particular candidate.
 WEEK 11
INTEREST, PRESSURE GROUPS AND POLITICS OF
COMMUNICATION
SUBTOPICS
• What are interest groups and pressure
groups?
• Media news line strategy
• Media news source news strategy
• Insiders verse outsiders’ sources
• Differential media Access
WHAT ARE INTEREST GROUPS AND PRESSURE
GROUPS?
• Pressure groups or conceptualised as interest
groups are mainly economic or cause–based
groups that seek to influence public policy
formation.
• Examples of pressure/ interest groups
Chamber of commerce -promotes free enterprise
MEDIA NEWS LINE STRATEGY
• The media news line does not hold up a mirror to
politics, but presents particular slices and perspectives
of presidential campaigns.
• News is not filled with partisan biases only, but is
instead shaped by professional routines. One routine
is the tendency to spin campaign narratives.
• Like all communicators, journalists tell stories not lies
or fictions, but narratives that frame politics around
particular themes.
• Naturally, the themes differ in different election years,
but it is remarkable how similar the storylines are over
the course of a variety of elections.
• The intent is not to push particular presidential
contenders, although it can sometimes seem this way
to thin-skinned campaign aides.
MEDIA NEWS SOURCE STRATEGY
• Media news management and distribution is a
ranked system in society influenced by the
competitiveness among news source(s).
• Becker model of hierarchy of credibility, summaries
that the higher one is in society ranking the more
one can be contacted as a news source and vice
verse.
• Primary definer thesis: Social hierarchies
determine the mechanism by which elites become
the main definers of news due to their credibility
and privileged access to media.
• Legitimacy and authoritativeness of elite sources
guarantee them prominence as primary sources.
• Secondary definer thesis. Are groups with less
privileged access to the media.
INSIDERS VERSE OUTSIDERS SOURCES
• Pressure groups can be divided into insider and
outsider group.
• Insider groups are those recognized by
government as legitimate spokespersons for
particular interests or causes.
• These group talk the language of government
and abide by the rules of the game, by presenting
issues with bias or amplification.
• Outsiders groups range from highly
professionalized and highly capitalized
international charities and campaigning
organizations to local networks.
• They do not to play according to government
rules. Some lack skills, capital and or special
prestige to become insiders.
DIFFERENTIAL MEDIA ACCESS
• Deacon distinguishes two orientations within pressure
group, “ campaign focused” and “concerned with
caring/service/advice”.
• Pressure groups are considered newsworthy and
authoritative based on criteria, topicality, generality, and
credibility.
• Campaign focused looks at issues broadly beyond their
membership from wider national and international
significance. E.g. poverty relief of Oxfam,etc
• These groups find themselves as advocates of journalists.
They are used as sources of controversial reaction to
topical and generalizable issues.
• Caring/service/advice focus on needs of specific
constituency, such as mental health, elderly, specific
illness, etc. These groups are more likely to be used by
journalist as sources of expertise for a specific subject and
less used for political opinion.
 WEEK 12:
GLOBALISATION OF POLITICS OF COMMUNICATION

SUBTOPICS:
• Internet and Political mobilization
• Characteristics of online campaigns
• Americanisation of politics of communication
• Characteristics of Americanisation of
campaigning trends
INTERNET & POLITICAL MOBILIZATION
• Online campaigning is now a center piece of
presidential elections, with each election becoming
ever-more interactive than the one that preceded it.
It’s a two way communication channel that enables
immediate feedback.
• Political participation via social media can invigorate
political participation and reduce cynicism.
• Internet digital campaigning can facilitate knowledge
gaps, as many, presumably less affluent, voters lack
high-speed access to the Internet.
• Online practices promote instant communication,
prioritizing instantaneous candidate responses at the
expense of vision.
CHARACTERISTICS OF ONLINE CAMPAIGNS

• Candidate websites are sleek and interactive, bearing no

resemblance to the dull, clunky, linear websites of
elections gone by.
• Social networking plays a key role in the online
campaign. By forging connections with supporters via
social networking sites, candidates can gain large
amounts of personal data on users.
• Contemporary campaigns regularly place videos and
political ads on YouTube, guaranteeing publicity in the
online world and avoiding the costs of television ads.
• The speed and pulse of campaigning have quickened,
producing a fast-paced environment characterized by
instantaneous messaging.
• Contemporary political campaigns are increasingly
characterized by ever-more specialized uses of political
persuasion techniques.
RULES FOR MOBILISING ONLINE AUDIENCES
• Find out where your audience are and go for them
there.
• Design messages that appeal to interests or
motivates the audience.
• Use emotions in messages.
• Authenticity is key to the human side of the
campaign where possible.
• Address of audience is important.
• Engage with audience rather than broadcasting to
them information.
AMERICANISATION OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION
• Two main characteristics of Americanization are
the instrumental relationship between politics and
media, and the professionalization of election
campaigns.
• The campaign techniques can be applied or
adapted to different extents.
• In political communication the term refers to the
worldwide proliferation of American campaign
techniques.
• The term is a good starting point for comparing
campaign practices in different countries.
• It is a suitable description of campaign
innovations that have emerged and are
continuing to surface in many democracies
around the world.
CHARACTERISTICS OF AMERICANISATION
CAMPAIGNING TRENDS
• Catch-all policies: Main goal of catch-all parties is to
raise consensus at the election moment. The decline of
a party’s power to reel in public support not only gives
rise to catch-all policies but also to a party leader
focusing on aggregating support at election time.
• Personalization: Personalization of politics is one of the
major elements associated with modernized or
Americanized campaigning where ‘the voter’s choice
depends increasingly upon the voter’s relationship with
the individual candidate. Media coverage focus more on
the activities of the party leaders in an election
campaign.
• Media-centricity: Mass media emerged in modern time
as autonomous power centre in reciprocal competition
with other power centres.