1st Edition

Mass Media and Political Communication in New Democracies

Edited By Katrin Voltmer Copyright 2006
    280 Pages
    by Routledge

    284 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book examines how political communication and the mass media have played a central role in the consolidation of emerging democracies around the world.

    Covering a broad range of political and cultural contexts, including Eastern and Southern Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, this new volume investigates the problems and conflicts arising in the process of establishing an independent media and competitive politics in post-autocratic societies. Considering the changing dynamic in the relationship between political actors, the media and their audience, the authors of this volume address the following issues:

    • changing journalistic role perceptions and journalistic quality
    • the reasons and consequences of persisting instrumentalization of the media by political actors
    • the role of the media in election campaigns
    • the way in which the citizens interpret political messages and the extent to which the media influence political attitudes and electoral behaviour
    • the role of the Internet in building a democratic public sphere

    This book will be of great interest to all those studying and researching democracy and democratization, comparative politics, political communication, journalism, media and the Internet.

    1 Katrin Voltmer

    The mass media and the dynamics of political communication in

    Processes of democratization – an introduction

    Part I: The mass media and journalistic practice – normative dilemmas,

    professionalization and political instrumentalization

    2 Carlos Barrera and Ricardo Zugasti

    The role of the press in times of transition: the building of the

    Spanish democracy (1975 – 78)

    3 Hedwig de Smaele

    ‘In the name of democracy’: the paradox of democracy and press

    freedom in post-communist Russia

    4 Herman Wasserman and Arnold S. de Beer

    Conflicts of interest? Debating the media’s role in post-apartheid

    South Africa

    5 Silvio Waisbord

    In journalism we trust? Credibility and fragmented journalism in Latin

    America

    6 Natalya Krasnoboka and Kees Brants

    Old and new media, old and new politics? On- and offline reporting in

    The 2002 Ukrainian election campaign

    Part II: Political parties, governments and elections: communication strategies and the mediatization of politics

    7 Roberto Espindola

    Electoral campaigning in Latin America’s new democracies: the Southern

    Cone

    8 Gary Rawnsley

    Democratization and election campaigning in Taiwan: professionalizing

    the professionals

    9 Sarah Oates

    Where’s the party? Television and election campaigns in Russia

    10 Ming-Ying Lee

    The Internet in politics: democracy in e-government in Taiwan

    Part III: Audience responses to political messages: interpretations and effects

    11 Ellen Mickiewicz

    Does ‘trust’ mean attention, comprehension and acceptance? Paradoxes

    of Russian viewers’ news processing

    12 Stephen White and Ian McAllister

    Politics and the media in post-communist Russia

    13 Katrin Voltmer and Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck

    New democracies without citizens? Mass media and democratic

    orientations – a four country comparison

    14 Katrin Voltmer

    Political Communication between democratization and the trajectories of the past.

    Biography

    Katrin Voltmer is Senior Lecturer of Political Communication at the Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds, UK.

    'The authors of each of the books sections provide a wealth of interesting cases, the writings in this volume draw a gripping picture of the media's changing role within it, from an instrument of autocratic power to an independent voice.'

    - Political Studies Review