HC1 Media and Power
5 principles in Political Communication
1. Political power can usually be translated into power over the news media
2. When the authorities lose control over the political environment, they also lose control over the
news
3. There is no such thing as objective journalism
4. The media are dedicated more than anything else to telling a good story and this can often have
a major impact on the political process
5. The most important effect of the news media on citizens tend to be unintentional and unnoticed
1st principle: Political power can usually be translated into power over the news media
Media and politics as a competitive symbioses — each side attempts to exploit the other while
expelling a minimum of costs
Mutual dependance: publicity versus info
- Front door: the powerful get more / automatic media access (media bias in favor of the powerful)
- Back door: powerless have to work hard to get into the media
- Side door: civil disobedience — protest, blockade
Inequality is not accidental, but structural (also in media)
The political economy of Mass Media
Propaganda Model: ‘market forces, internalized assumptions and self-censorship’ motivate
newspapers and television networks to stifle dissent
‘Traces the routes by which money and power are able to filter out the news fit to print,
marginalize dissent, and allow the government and dominant private interests to get their
message across to the public’
Media as ‘democratic watchdog’ — Herman and Chomsky argue that US media fail to perform
democratic tasks and are basically akin to propaganda systems and are often involved in
misinformation
Chomsky even contends that the media is in essence against democracy: Manufacturing Consent
Panopticism: the systematic ordering and controlling of human populations through subtle and
often unseen forces
4 forms of power
Corrective forms (affecting the OPTIONS for actions)
1. (Physical) force or coercion on decisions or compliance
2. The ability or disposition to change social relations or to leave them intact, through
manipulation, agenda-setting and non-decisions: changing the basis of choices so it becomes
‘rational’ to comply
Persuasive forms (affecting the REASONS for actions)
3. Preference-shaping via institutions: ‘signification’ or cognitive symbolism: shaping the
‘meaning’ and significance of things
4. Values-shaping: ‘thought control’: the spectrum of actions of the subaltern is limited via
ideological and discursive hegemony and disciplining
,US media function as a mechanism of propaganda through five filters: most news that are being
broadcast have been filtered to express the dominant ideology and interests
1. Size and Ownership: the size and profit-seeking imperative of dominant media corporations
create a bias
2. Advertising: news is merely a filter to get privileged readers to see the advertisements
3. Sourcing: ready-made news production — Churnalism
4. Flak: negative responses to a media statement or a TV / radio program
5. Anti-ideology and fear: the way artificial fears are created with a dual purpose
, HC2 Political Control of the Media
2nd principle: When the authorities lose control over the political environment, they also lose
control over the news media
Media-Politics-Media cycle — an event that alters the political landscape which the media is
forced to respond to. Politics are then further impacted by the medias coverage of the initial event.
Politicians react again, and so on…
Mutual Dependence: Two theories
Mediatisation Theory: Media logic influences political behavior
Fourth dimension most important: politician-media relationship
(Self-)Mediatisation: a process whereby politicians tailor their message offerings to the perceived
news values, newsroom routines and journalistic culture
Democracy may be threatened or perverted when, through mediatisation, the tension
between political leadership and journalistic commentary is adulated, when, in other words,
political logic is concerted or displayed by media logic
During a crisis, the news media are often at their most dependent
Indexing Theory: Range of views ‘indexed’ by elite views
Predicts the nature of the content of political news: as the degree of conflict among elites increases,
so too will the degree of conflicting views found in news coverage of that topic
Conversely, when elites ignore an issue (or blur differences) the range of views included in the news
will be correspondingly smaller
5 principles in Political Communication
1. Political power can usually be translated into power over the news media
2. When the authorities lose control over the political environment, they also lose control over the
news
3. There is no such thing as objective journalism
4. The media are dedicated more than anything else to telling a good story and this can often have
a major impact on the political process
5. The most important effect of the news media on citizens tend to be unintentional and unnoticed
1st principle: Political power can usually be translated into power over the news media
Media and politics as a competitive symbioses — each side attempts to exploit the other while
expelling a minimum of costs
Mutual dependance: publicity versus info
- Front door: the powerful get more / automatic media access (media bias in favor of the powerful)
- Back door: powerless have to work hard to get into the media
- Side door: civil disobedience — protest, blockade
Inequality is not accidental, but structural (also in media)
The political economy of Mass Media
Propaganda Model: ‘market forces, internalized assumptions and self-censorship’ motivate
newspapers and television networks to stifle dissent
‘Traces the routes by which money and power are able to filter out the news fit to print,
marginalize dissent, and allow the government and dominant private interests to get their
message across to the public’
Media as ‘democratic watchdog’ — Herman and Chomsky argue that US media fail to perform
democratic tasks and are basically akin to propaganda systems and are often involved in
misinformation
Chomsky even contends that the media is in essence against democracy: Manufacturing Consent
Panopticism: the systematic ordering and controlling of human populations through subtle and
often unseen forces
4 forms of power
Corrective forms (affecting the OPTIONS for actions)
1. (Physical) force or coercion on decisions or compliance
2. The ability or disposition to change social relations or to leave them intact, through
manipulation, agenda-setting and non-decisions: changing the basis of choices so it becomes
‘rational’ to comply
Persuasive forms (affecting the REASONS for actions)
3. Preference-shaping via institutions: ‘signification’ or cognitive symbolism: shaping the
‘meaning’ and significance of things
4. Values-shaping: ‘thought control’: the spectrum of actions of the subaltern is limited via
ideological and discursive hegemony and disciplining
,US media function as a mechanism of propaganda through five filters: most news that are being
broadcast have been filtered to express the dominant ideology and interests
1. Size and Ownership: the size and profit-seeking imperative of dominant media corporations
create a bias
2. Advertising: news is merely a filter to get privileged readers to see the advertisements
3. Sourcing: ready-made news production — Churnalism
4. Flak: negative responses to a media statement or a TV / radio program
5. Anti-ideology and fear: the way artificial fears are created with a dual purpose
, HC2 Political Control of the Media
2nd principle: When the authorities lose control over the political environment, they also lose
control over the news media
Media-Politics-Media cycle — an event that alters the political landscape which the media is
forced to respond to. Politics are then further impacted by the medias coverage of the initial event.
Politicians react again, and so on…
Mutual Dependence: Two theories
Mediatisation Theory: Media logic influences political behavior
Fourth dimension most important: politician-media relationship
(Self-)Mediatisation: a process whereby politicians tailor their message offerings to the perceived
news values, newsroom routines and journalistic culture
Democracy may be threatened or perverted when, through mediatisation, the tension
between political leadership and journalistic commentary is adulated, when, in other words,
political logic is concerted or displayed by media logic
During a crisis, the news media are often at their most dependent
Indexing Theory: Range of views ‘indexed’ by elite views
Predicts the nature of the content of political news: as the degree of conflict among elites increases,
so too will the degree of conflicting views found in news coverage of that topic
Conversely, when elites ignore an issue (or blur differences) the range of views included in the news
will be correspondingly smaller
