Mediatization of Politics During U.S. Presidential Election 2008

• Authors: Łukasz Wojtkowski

Abstracts

EN

The thesis of this paper applies to the mediatization of politics process during American presidential campaign of 2008. It is entrenched in the theory of political communication. Because of the primary assumptions in the analysis below, political communication is considered mainly from perspective of the models of relations between the mass media and politics, which are treated as systems. It is justified because those relations influence the abovementioned systems and play the biggest role in affecting mass society and culture. In this thesis, the public is considered as having less influence on entire process of political communication. In order to clarify the subject of the research, the division into structural and functional mediatization was created. Structural mediatization, which is the main subject of the analysis, occurs when structures of the media and political systems come into dependence and subordination relation. Parts of the media system dominate over the analogical elements in the political system, internalizing media logic. Individual elements of the political world comply to the media logic and the media orders. Subjects of the political system implement political marketing methods to use the dominant role of the media in the process. Functional mediatization can be defined as a transfer of systemic relations at the smallest possible level – specific case in micro scale,when the medium controls a political actor. Here, the mediatization takes its most radical form. The medium on every stage of constructing the political reality can manipulate and deform a media political reality

Keywords

EN

mediatization of politics; modernization; structures; functions; election; media

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek
• Journal: Kultura i Edukacja
• Year: 2012
• Issue: 6(92)
• Pages: 109-124

Dates

published

2012

Contributors

author

Łukasz Wojtkowski

• Nicolaus Copernicus University

References

• Dobek-Ostrowska B., Wiszniowski R., Teoria komunikowania publicznego i politycznego. Wprowadzenie [Theory of Public and Political Communication. An Introduction], Wrocław 2007.
• Dayan D., Katz E., Media Events. The Live Broadcasting of History, Cambridge 1992.
• Fairclough N., Analyzing Discourse. Textual Analysis for Social Research, London 2003.
• Jeziński M., Marketing polityczny a procesy akulturacyjne. Przypadek III Rzeczpospolitej [Political Marketing and Acculturation Processes. Case of the Republic of Poland], Toruń 2004.
• Mazzoleni G., Schulz W., “Mediatization” of Politics: A Challenge for Democracy, “Political Communication” 1999, Vol. 16.
• McKinney M.S., Carlin D.B., Political Campaign Debates [in:] Handbook of Political Communication Research, L.L. Kaid (ed.), Mahwah–New Jersey–London 2004.
• McNair B., Hibberd M., Schlesinger P., Mediated Access: Broadcasting and Democratic Participation, Luton 2003.
• Meyer T., Mediated Politics, Cambridge 2002.
• Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism, State of the Media, www.ststeofthemedia.org, http://www.ststeofthemedia.org/2009/index.htm [access: 14.11.2009].
• Schulz W., Reconstructing Mediatization as an Analytical Concept, “European Journal of Communication” 2004, No. 1, Vol. 19.
• Schulz W., Komunikacja polityczna. Koncepcje teoretyczne i wyniki badań empirycznych na temat mediów masowych w polityce [Political Communication. Theoretical Concepts and Findings of Emipirical Reaserches on Mass Media in Politics], Kraków 2006.
• Strömbäck J., Four Phases of Mediatization: An Analysis of the Mediatization of Politics, “The International Journal of Press/Politics” 2008, No. 3, Vol. 13.
• The Internet’s Role in Campaign 2008, Pew Internet & American Life Project, Washington D.C. 2009.
• Van Dijk T., News as Discourse, Hillsdale–New Jersey–Hove–London 1988.
• Winning the Media Campaign: How the Press Reported the 2008 Presidential Election, Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism, Washington D.C. 2008.

Identifiers

DOI

10.15804/kie.2012.06.06

Biblioteka Nauki

27311612