This chapter summarizes the current state of our knowledge about the relationship between the mass media of communication and politics in representative democracies. It is an important topic for two reasons. One, the mass communications media are the connective tissue of democracy, in that they are the principal means by which elected representatives and citizens reach out to each other in their reciprocal efforts to inform and influence. Two, the politically relevant media landscape is in a constant state of flux as communications technologies proliferate and change almost from day to day. For a long period, students of mass communication could restrict their attention to newspaper, radio, and television. To this list must now be added, at least, cable television and the internet, each of which has had profound implications for the way voters seek (or avoid) political information and the way political parties conduct election campaigns. The chapter will start with a brief discussion of the role of the mass media in democratic theory. It will then move on to the question of how well the traditional media (and especially newspapers and television) perform this role by examining how they influence individuals' political opinions and behaviors. There will then be an examination of the democratic role of what might be called the “new” media, and especially the internet.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm.
- 2.
These data come from the annual European Social Survey. The exact percentages by country can be found at www. europeansocialsurvey.org.
- 3.
There is some preliminary research on the effects of seeing candidate advertisements on TV as opposed to on line. One study, for example, reports their greater effectiveness when seen on the web (Kaid and Postelnicu 2005).
- 4.
This speculation arises from one of the author's experience with the Internet Movie Data Base website. Beginning in October 2007, imdb.com posted a series of U.S. primary advertisements, an example of which is the question “Can Hillary Win? Vote here” placed next to a picture of Hillary Clinton. These advertisements were not attached officially to any campaign and they disappeared when the imdb.com website was accessed from a different IP address.
References
Aarts, K., & Semetko, H. (2003). The divided electorate: Media use and political involvement. Journal of Politics, 65, 759–784.
Abramson, J. N., Arteron, F. C., & Orren, G. R. (1988). The electronic commonwealth: The impact of new media technologies on democratic politics. New York: Basic Books.
Ansolabehere, S., & Iyengar, S. (1995). Going negative: How attack ads shrink and polarize the electorate. New York: Free Press.
Avery, R. K. (Ed.). (1993). Public service broadcasting in a multichannel environment: The history and survival of an ideal. New York: Longman.
Bagdikian, B. H. (2004). The new media monopoly. Boston: Beacon Press.
Baker, C. E. (2007). Media concentration and democracy: Why ownership matters. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Berelson, B. R., Lazarsfeld P. F., & McPhee W. N. (1954). Voting: A study of opinion formation in a presidential campaign. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Brader, T. (2005). Striking a responsive chord: How political ads motivate and persuade voters by appealing to emotions. American Journal of Political Science, 49, 388–405.
Butler, D. & Stokes, D. (1969). Political change in Britain: Forces shaping electoral choice. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Campbell A., Converse, P. E., Miller, W. E., & Stokes, D. E. (1960). The American voter. New York: Wiley.
Delli Carpini, M. X., & Keeter, S. (1996). What Americans know about politics and why it matters. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press.
Donahue, H. C. (1989). The battle to control broadcast news: Who owns the first amendment? Cambridge: MIT Press.
Druckman, J. N., & Nelson, K. R. (2003). Framing and deliberation: How citizens' conversations limit elite influence. American Journal of Political Science, 47, 729–745.
Druckman, J. N. (2004). Political preference formation: Competition, deliberation, and the (ir)relevance of framing effects. American Political Science Review, 98, 671–686.
Eveland Jr, W. P., Marton, K., & Seo M. (2004). Moving beyond “Just the Facts”. The influence of online news on the content and structure of public affairs knowledge. Communication Research, 31, 82–108.
Foot, K. A., Schneider, S. M., Kluver, R., Xenos M., & Jankowski, N. W. (2007). Comparing web production practices across electoral web spheres. In R. Kluver, N. W. Jankowski, K. A. Foot, & S. M. Schneider (Eds.), The internet and national elections. A comparative study of web campaigning (pp. 243–60), London; New York: Routledge.
Freedman, P., Franz, M., & Goldstein, K. (2004). Campaign advertising and democratic citizenship. American Journal of Political Science, 48, 723–741.
Glaser, J., & Salovey, P. (1998). Affect in electoral politics. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2, 156–172.
Goldstein, K., & Ridout, T. N. (2004). Measuring the effects of televised political advertising in the United States. Annual Review of Political Science, 7, 205–226.
Graber, D. A. (2001). Processing politics: Learning from television in the internet age. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gurevitch, M., & Blumler, J. (1990). Political communications systems and democratic values. In J. Lichtenberg (Ed.), Democracy and the mass media. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Herman, E. S., & McChesney, R. W. (1997). The global media. London: Cassell.
Iyengar, S., & Kinder, D. R. (1987). News that matters: Television and American opinion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Iyengar, S. (1991). Is anyone responsible? How television frames political issues. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Jankowski, N. W., Kluver, R., Foot, K. A., & Schneider, S. M. (2007). Introducing the internet and elections project. In R. Kluver, N. W. Jankowski, K. A. Foot, & S. M. Schneider (Eds.), The internet and national elections. A comparative study of web campaigning (pp. 3–15), London; New York: Routledge.
Kaid, L. L. & Postelnicu M. (2005). Political advertising in the 2004 Election. A comparison of traditional television and internet messages. American Behavioral Scientist, 49, 265–278.
Kaid, L. L. (2006). Political web wars: The use of the internet for political advertising. In A. P. Williams & J. C. Tedesco (Eds.), The internet election: Perspectives on the web in campaign 2004 (pp. 67–82), Oxford, UK: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Katz, H. (1989). The future of public broadcasting in the U.S. Media, Culture and Society, 11, 195–205.
Kluver, R., Jankowski, N., Foot, K., & Schneider, S. (Eds.) (2007). The internet and national elections. A comparative study of web campaigning. London; New York: Routledge.
Lau, R. R., Sigelman, L., Heldman, C., & Babbit, P. (1999). The effects of negative political advertisements: A meta- analytic assessment. The American Political Science Review, 93, 851–875.
Marcus, G. E. (2000). Emotions in politics. Annual Review of Political Science, 3, 221–250.
McChesney, R. W. (2000). The global media giants. In R. Andersen & L. Strate (Eds.), Critical studies in media commercialism (pp. 59–70). Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
McCombs, M. E., & Shaw, D. L. (1972). The agenda-setting function of mass media. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 36, pp. 176–187.
Mughan, A. (2000). Media and the presidentialization of parliamentary elections. London: Palgrave.
Nelson, T. E., Clawson R. A., & Oxley, Z. M. (1997). Media framing of a civil liberties conflict and its effect on tolerance. The American Political Science Review, 91, 567–583.
Norris, P. (2001). Digital divide: Civic engagement, information poverty, and the internet worldwide. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Price, V., & Zaller, J. R. (1993). Who gets the news? Alternative measures of news reception and their implications for research. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 57, 133–164.
Prior, M. (2005). News vs. entertainment: How increasing media choice widens gaps in political knowledge and turnout. American Journal of Political Science, 49, 577–592.
Prior, M., & Lupia, A. (2008). Money, time, and political knowledge: Distinguishing quick recall and political learning skills. American Journal of Political Science, 52, 169–183.
Roberts, D. F., & Maccoby, N. (1985). Effects of mass communication. In G. Lindzey & E. Aronson (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 539–598), New York: Random House.
Rothman, S. (1992). The development of the mass media. In S. Rothman (Ed.), The mass media in liberal democratic societies (pp. 37–74). New York: Paragon House.
Scannell, P. (1989). Public service broadcasting and modern public life. Media, Culture and Society, 11, 135–66.
Schmitt-Beck, R. (2004). Political communication effects: The impact of mass media and personal conversations on voting. In F. Esser & B. Pfesch (Eds.), Comparing political communication: Theories, cases and challenges (pp.293–324), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schmitter, P. C., & Karl, T. L. (1991). What democracy is… and is not. Journal of Democracy, 2, 75–88.
Swanson, D., & Mancini, P. (Eds.). (1996). Politics, media and democracy: An international study of innovations in electoral campaigning and their consequences. Westport, CT.: Praeger.
Trammell, K. D. (2006). The blogging of the president. In A. P. Williams & J. C. Tedesco (Eds.), The internet elec- tion: Perspectives on the web in campaign 2004 (pp. 133–146), Oxford, UK: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Wanta, W., & Ghanem, S. (2007). Effects of agenda setting. In R. W. Preiss, B. M. Gayle, N. Burrell, M. Allen, & J. Bryant (Eds), Mass media effects research: Advances through meta-analysis (pp. 37–51). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Ward, S., Gibson, R., & Nixon, P. (2003). Parties and the internet: An overview. In R. Gibson, P. Nixon & S. Ward (Eds.), Political parties and the internet: Net gain? (pp. 11–38), London; New York: Routledge.
Zaller, J. R. (1992). The nature and origins of mass opinion. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dumitrescu, D., Mughan, A. (2010). Mass Media and Democratic Politics. In: Leicht, K.T., Jenkins, J.C. (eds) Handbook of Politics. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-68930-2_26
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-68930-2_26
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-68929-6
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-68930-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)