Election campaigns in recent years have revealed how political communication is rapidly changing due to the emergence of new forms of media. Recent political elections in 2010 have shown the power of the media as well as how it is transforming. Traditional sources of media such as newspapers, television, and radio are slowly being overlapped by new media, such as the internet and social networking. Online media empowers users by allowing for more choice and selection of contents. South Korea, as one of the most wired countries in the world, is an interesting case in terms of the influence of new media and its impact on politics. While the media is transforming, the way in which politics is presented is also changing. We are seeing now the emergence of branding in politics as demonstrated by former-British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the way he presented his image in British politics.

To understand more about political communication and its future, the EAI invited Holli A. Semetko, Emory University, to discuss more about the field and its new trends. How has political communication changed over time? What impact do new forms of media have on elections and voter turnout? And what kind of media contents will we see in the future? These were some of the questions addressed during the Smart Talk. The following is a summary of the presentation and the subsequent discussion.

Presentation

History of election and media

The mass media has largely dominated political campaigning as a source of information during election time. In general, the mass media, which includes television and radio, are the only sources for the public to obtain information about elections and the policies of candidates. In the 21st century, it is still the case that for most countries the majority of the public still rely on traditional sources of information, such as newspapers. However, among some countries that are leading in internet-based technology, the trend is to move away from the traditional mass media. This is particularly prevalent among the younger generation in these countries, who are internet-savvy users.

When understanding traditional sources of media, there are two important concepts for political communication: agenda setting and framing. These two concepts in this field are associated with the question on what are the possible effects of the news media on the public and their relationship with politics. Studies have shown how these two concepts are indicative of the influential power that the media holds.

Agenda setting is to the effect where certain issues dealt with as important matters in the media subsequently become crucial issues among the public too. Studies have shown that people will aggregate and start to think about certain issues that the media provides them through watching, reading, and hearing sources of information. There is though criticism focused on the fact that agenda setting makes it difficult for media contents to retain objectivity. It is easy for some media contents selected through agenda setting to reflect the preferences and policies of powerful parties and interest groups.

Framing evolved out of agenda setting. This process leads people to think about issues and agendas in a certain way. In other words, framing has a particular direction to lead people’s way of thinking. When the public is influenced by framing effects, they will have certain opinions on what the media has presented.

Media in elections and politics

Considering the influence and power the media has, there is a strong view that the media needs to be impartial and balanced in the way that it delivers political issues and parties’ policies when they organize and present their coverage during elections. On the other hand, balanced news coverage usually results in diminished reporting. That is impartiality and balanced reporting does not make for pulsating news coverage.

Elections represent the high point of political communication in democracies. During this time, the main evening TV news often has the widest reach. Their reach with voters who are undecided or potential vote switchers is of particular interest for political actors. The importance of traditional media is further emphasized by two aspects: visibility and tone.

Visibility is about the number of times political actors such as candidates, parties, and party spokespersons are seen in the news. Tone indicates how the political actors are evaluated in the news, either positive or negative. Topics or themes in the media become very important for political actors in terms of visibility and tone during the election period. Political actors will always aim for high visibility with very positive tone. Generally though, it is predicted that the path of the media’s contents usually moves to high visibility with a negative tone and then down to low visibility with a negative tone. In such cases, political campaigns will try always to shift media coverage to low visibility with a positive tone, and finally up to high visibility with positive tone. Assessing the visibility and tone in the media can be a way to identify the range and quality of information that citizens have access to during the election time.

The Future of Political Communication

With this overview of the how the traditional media operates and its impact on its audience, the direction in which political communication is heading can be considered. New trends and diverse actors are proving to be a major influence in this field and changing the way of political discourse. This change will be a shift away from unilateral communication to a communication based on a consumer paradigm. There will be three ways in which these changes will take place.

Firstly, there is the current decline of the mass media, particularly the weakening of newspapers which have been struggling in recent years. In response, different types and range of media will appear determined by the needs of the consumer. Such a consumer-based media will be at the mercy of developments in technology such as the internet and social networking. Already, this technological consumer-based media is replacing the traditional advertising-driven model.

Secondly, political marketing is expected to be more widespread through the use of branding. Among the population we are also seeing increased political participation in the choices made by consumers. For example, fair trade is an area where consumers are making political decisions related to food products such as coffee, banana, and chocolate. From this we can expect there will be political marketing within all common fields moving away from the traditional sphere of political dialogue.

Lastly and a related point, there will be increased focus on the new concepts of public relations and branding by targeting a variety of new actors. Conceptions used in traditional media resources, agenda-setting and framing will soon be replaced with political public relations and political branding in the future.

Discussion

The Challenges of Online Political Communication

The discussion addressed some of the issues raised in the presentation related to the emergence of new forms of media for political communication. In particular, the impact of the internet is having a major effect in South Korea. However, this also presents a number of difficult issues in terms of creating divisions within society...(Continued)

Holli A. Semetko is a Professor of Political Science at Emory University

Discussants

Young-Tae Jung (Inha University)

Wook Kim (Pai Chai University)

Hyun-Chool Lee (Korea National Assembly)

Hyun-Jin Seo (Sungshin Women’s University)