Bringing Together Political Communication and Critical Event Studies

Abstract

In this chapter, we introduce a theoretical framework that combines the established field of political communication with the emerging one of critical event studies (CES). In order to introduce this framework we briefly outline a history of political communication and the philosophical foundations of CES. Though not commonly seen to be connected, we argue that an understanding of ‘event’ that goes beyond simplistic economic and commercially driven definitions, to one that construes it as disruption and contestation, can relocate event studies as a central aspect of critical social science research. We argue that by combining both fields, new approaches and new ways of interpreting the discourses associated with a political imaginary, or a dominant hegemony, can be identified.