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Introduction

to Political Communication
PR2600

Course Syllabus and Reading List



Lecturer: Dr. Cristian Vaccari
2015-2016

Websites:
http://moodle.rhul.ac.uk
http://newpolcom.rhul.ac.uk

Twitter:
@25lettori
#intropolcom



Course Contents


Lecture 1: Introduction to the Course
Lecture 2: Democracy and the Media
Lecture 3: Media as Political Actors
Lecture 4: Political News
Lecture 5: News Management and Political Public Relations
Lecture 6: The Audience for Political News
Lecture 7: Comparing Media Systems I: Features and Models
Lecture 8: Comparing Media Systems II: Differences that Make a Difference
Lecture 9: Journalistic Objectivity and its Discontents
Lecture 10: Popular Politics and Intimate Politics

Lecture 11: Strategy in Election Campaigns
Lecture 12: Organization, Technology and Resources in Election Campaigns
Lecture 13: The Conditions for Political Persuasion
Lecture 14: The Framing and Counter-Framing of Political Messages
Lecture 15: Political Advertising
Lecture 16: The 2015 UK General Election
Lecture 17: The Effects of Political Communication
Lecture 18: Political Communication in a Globalizing World
Lecture 19: Campaign Ethics
Lecture 20: Conclusions: Political Communication and the Quality of Democracy

Important Facts


Coursework Deadlines:
Essay 1: Monday December 7th 2015 marks to be returned by December 28th
Essay 2: Monday March 14th 2016 marks to be returned by April 4th

Assessments:
Two essays: 25% each
Three-hour unseen examination: 50%

The first thing you should read for this course is this booklet, in its entirety. It contains much
useful information which will help you to navigate your way through the course.

1. About the Course


The purpose of this course is to provide students with a broad overview of how citizens,
politicians and the media interact across Western democracies during both electoral and
governing periods. While the course will cover key aspects of political communication in the
United Kingdom, the focus will be mostly comparative. The first part of the course will focus
on the production and consumption of political news, while the second part will address
election campaigns and their effects as well as focusing on contemporary debates in political
communication, including ethical issues.

There will be weekly, one hour lectures and weekly, one hour seminars. One of the lectures
will be replaced by your individual viewing of a documentary film, for discussion in the
seminar. Reading weeks will fall in week six of the Autumn and Spring terms.

Each student will be expected to attend the lectures and prepare for the seminars by reading
from among and beyond the suggested reading. Seminars will be based upon practical
activities and exercises as well as open discussion of the topics of the week. Some course
materials will be provided via the Internet.

ATTENDANCE AT ALL SEMINARS IS COMPULSORY. See the Departments Student
Undergraduate Handbook for important information on attendance requirements and
disciplinary action that can result from failure to attend.

2. Teaching Staff


Cristian Vaccari, Lecturer in Politics

Room: FW115
Office hours: Monday, 3-4PM and Tuesday, 4-5 PM.
NOTE: On weeks 1 and 2 there will be no visiting hours on Tuesday. There will be no visiting
hours during Reading Weeks.
If you want to see me outside term, please send me an email to schedule an appointment.

E-mail: cristian.vaccari@rhul.ac.uk
Twitter: @25lettori

RHUL webpage: https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/cristian-
vaccari(45794463-2310-4a97-87db-8b2f2bca0dcf).html
Google Scholar profile: http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3_TethEAAAAJ&hl=en
Research project website: http://www.webpoleu.net/
New Political Communication Unit website: http://newpolcom.rhul.ac.uk/

Nikki Soo, Ph.D. candidate

E-mail: Nikki.Soo.2011@live.rhul.ac.uk
Twitter: @sniksw
Office hours: Monday, 2-3PM

RHUL webpage: http://pure.rhul.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/nikki-soo%28b2eefcc1-bae8-
4d96-924b-d7933eb0ab41%29.html

3. Course Objectives and Learning Outcomes


At the end of this course a typical student should be able to:

(a) subject specific
Critically evaluate the role of political communication for the quality of democracy
Appreciate the differences that exist in media-politics relationships across the Western
world and assess their impact on citizenship and political action
Understand the changes that are taking place in media systems and election campaigns
in the UK and elsewhere, particularly with respect to the role of digital media
Comprehend the professions, tools, conducts, and ethics of contemporary campaigns
Evaluate the scope and limits of the effects of political communication messages

(b) generic
Critically analyse texts
Communicate clearly and construct coherent arguments, both in seminars and in
written work
Adapt knowledge to specific contexts and types of social actors
Understand the role context plays in shaping social and political dynamics

(c) students will have developed the following key skills
Taking part in group discussions
Working in small groups
Producing written material in the form of essays
Problem-solving and scenario-building
Effectively engaging in online discussion and dissemination of contents
Time management and self-organization

4. Course Work and Assessment



Non-assessed coursework: seminar participation
You are required to attend all seminars and to actively participate in the activities the
seminars will feature. These include small-group exercises, discussion of relevant cases, and
writing workshops. I will announce details of the activities that require preparation before
class in due advance. To be able to actively and effectively participate in the seminars, you
must have read at least the core readings for each week.
You are also encouraged to bring in news stories you think relevant to class. These may be
current news or past news that are still available online, and may come from anywhere in the
world. Share these materials using the #intropolcom hashtag on Twitter and the forum on
Moodle. We will then use these as materials for seminar discussion.
During both lectures and seminars, use of mobile phones and smartphones is prohibited.
There will be no exceptions. Scientific research shows that increased cell phone use is
associated with decreased academic performance, i.e., lower marks. See Lepp, A., Barkley, J. E.,
& Karpinski, A. C. (2015). The Relationship Between Cell Phone Use and Academic
Performance in a Sample of US College Students. SAGE Open, 5(1), 2158244015573169.

Assessed coursework: two essays (worth 25% each)
You are required to write two assessed essays, each of up to 2,000 words in length and each
counting for 25% of the total possible mark. Questions are to be taken from those listed

under each subject heading. Questions may be written on subjects other than these, but
only after consultation with me. For your first essay, you should choose questions only from
weeks 2-10; for your second essay, you should choose questions only from weeks 11-19.
You should start to plan and research your essays well ahead of time. Essays should be
treated as an answer to a question and a reflection on its possible implications, an argument
rather than a simple factual description of a topic. I don't expect essays to be comprehensive
factual accounts of a topic: in 2,000 words, they couldn't be. What I look for is evidence of
knowledge and understanding, but even more important, the ability to think critically and
imaginatively about the question asked on the basis of such knowledge and understanding.
When we have marked your essay, it will be returned via Moodle with an Essay Assessment
Sheet, detailing the strengths and weaknesses of your work.
Please note that no member of the teaching staff will provide feedback on draft essays or
essay outlines, whether by email or in person. If you have specific questions on how to
structure your essay, how to address a question, or how to interpret some theory or empirical
evidence in the readings, you should come to our office hours to discuss them.

Final assessment: examination (worth 50% overall)
A three hour, unseen, written examination taken in the summer term will count for 50% of
the total possible mark. Each student will be required to write essays in answer to two
questions chosen from a list of eight. A specimen examination paper is attached at the end of
this syllabus.

Essay deadlines are as follows:
Essay 1: Monday December 7th 2015 marks to be returned by December 28th
Essay 2: Monday March 14th 2016 marks to be returned by April 4th
Upload one digital copy of your essay to Turnitin by 9AM and submit one hard copy to me or
the NET at the beginning of the weeks seminar by 4PM or 5PM according to the group you
are in.

Essay Assessment Criteria
Below are listed the general criteria that I will be using when I mark your essays. Please bear
them in mind when you prepare your written work:
Interpretation of question and introduction
Subject relevance
Logical development
Insight and originality
Critical analysis
Use of sources
Use of evidence
Presentation of references
Spelling
Grammar
Punctuation
Style and 'readability'

Study Resources and Essay Writing Guide
Royal Holloway has put together some very useful resources to help you organize your study
and write clear and compelling essays. Take a look at
http://www.rhul.ac.uk/ecampus/academicsupport/studyresources.aspx

Mind Maps
Mind maps are a useful tool to organize the concepts and main arguments of the course. I
encourage you to get familiar with them if you do not know them. An essential guide on how
to use mind mapping can be found at http://www.mind-mapping.co.uk/mind-mapping-
information-and-advice/how-to-make-a-mind-map/, a free online course by the company
started by the inventor of mind maps can be found at http://thinkbuzan.com/how-to-mind-
map/, and a simple video on how to create a mind map can be found at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLWV0XN7K1g. There are various pieces of software,
mostly available for a modicum price, that facilitate drawing mind maps with your computer,
tablet, or smartphone. Alternatively, you can draw your mind maps with paper and pencils.
Below is a very basic mind map of all the topic of the course.


NOTE: before each lecture, I will try to post a mind map summarizing the main topics of
the week on Moodle. You can use this mind map to follow my lecture and take notes. Make
sure to log on to Moodle in the morning when a lecture is going to take place to download the
mind map.

How to Write Essays for this Course1
Start by making an outline for your essay. Do not begin to write until your outline is fully
formulated. Plan your essay to be divided in three parts:
1) Introduction. This should contain:
a. A clear explanation of your thesis, or main argument, and of the case that you
are going to make to support it. Make sure your essay is based on one main
point from which everything else follows. Do not begin to write your essay until
you can state your argument in a single declarative sentence. Your argument
should be introduced in your introduction, not in your conclusion. Do not leave
your reader in the dark and avoid cliff-hangers.
b. The plan of development: once you have stated your thesis, tell your reader
how you are going to support your argument. Without a precise plan of
development, readers may miss some of your key points or some of the logical
connections between them. The plan should be placed at the end of the

1 These guidelines are adapted from those developed by Professor Sam Popkin at the University of California at

San Diego.

introduction and should briefly introduce the main points that support the
argument.
2) Body: this is the heart of the paper, where you provide and substantiate the points that
support your argument. Each paragraph should start with a topic sentence that
summarizes the point, followed by a few other sentences that introduce evidence for
that point. Each point, and so each topic sentence, should relate to and support your
one-sentence thesis statement. Document your points with references to readings and
provable facts rather than your own opinion. Never make all-encompassing statements
such as negative messages usually work better than positive ones without providing
evidence for them in the form of citations or compelling facts. This part of the essay
will be much easier to write if you are following an outline.
3) Conclusion: summarize your argument and the support you provided for it. If you want
to include your opinion about any ideas and evidence presented in your work, the
conclusion is the appropriate place to do so.
A few other important suggestions:
Remember that you are writing a formal essay that requires precise language. Do not
be cute.
Use concepts carefully: words such as priming, framing, agenda setting, political
parallelism, pseudo-events, and so forth have very precise meanings in political
communication, and these meanings are spelled out in the readings. You will lose
points if your essay uses these concepts casually and inconsistently with how they are
used in the readings.
Do not cite lectures or presentations; cite readings and publicly available materials.
Never hide behind the authors, for instance by using sentences like Hallin and Mancini
argue that. Instead, use citations to bolster your arguments, as in: Public service
broadcasting has been proved to substantially augment citizens information about
politics (Curran et al. 2009).
Proofread your work. There should be no misspelling or grammatical errors in your
essays. You should not hand in your essay until you have proofread your final draft, so
plan your work to have time to do that. If you want your readers to take your ideas
seriously, present them clearly.
Read your essay to detect poor sentences. Read the first sentence of every paragraph
(the topic sentence) aloud and see if they follow smoothly and if they all relate to and
support the thesis of your paper; if not, reorganize the paragraphs and/or rewrite the
topic sentences. Read the first and last sentence of each paragraph aloud and see if the
two sentences are clearly connected; if not, reorganize and rewrite the paragraph.
See the Departments Undergraduate Student Handbook for important information
about referencing, word count, evaluation, and late submission of essays.

5. Assessment Arrangements for JYA/Study Abroad Students


JYA/Study Abroad students studying in the Department for one term only will not be required
to sit the summer examination. Their assessment will be based on two essays, each of 2,500
words in length. The deadlines for submission of both of these essays are as follows:

For students visiting during the Autumn Term: Monday December 7th 2014
For students visiting during the Spring Term: Monday March 14th 2015

JYA/Study Abroad students taking the complete course will sit the final examination in May in
the usual way. There will be no exceptions to this rule.

6. Referencing, Sourcing, and Plagiarism


Plagiarism will not be tolerated by the Department and the College. For all course work, the
work must be your own. Attempts to pass off someone else's work (written by another
student or from a book/article you have read) as your own is plagiarism. Duplicate work
(work that you have submitted for one course, then resubmitted for another course) is also
not permitted. If we find you have cheated in this way, any mark awarded will be reduced to
zero, and, depending on the seriousness of the offence, your overall degree classification may
be lowered, or you may be prevented from graduating.

See the Departments Student Undergraduate Handbook for important information about
plagiarism and the Turnitin plagiarism detection database, where you are required to submit
your essays.

As in all courses offered by the Department of Politics and International Relations, you must
follow a specific referencing style when citing bibliographic sources in your essays. Read the
style guide of Political Studies, the journal of the British Political Studies Association, and
follow them scrupulously when writing your essays. They are available at
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/politics/documents/journal-ps-style-guide.pdf

If you use information from the Internet in your assignments you must give the full url
(address) from which the information was gleaned, and the date on which you found the
information on the site.

I will deduct marks from your essays if you do not cite references properly. As in all
other cases, plagiarism will not be tolerated.

7. Course Online Resources



Course Website
This course has its own dedicated website, based on the free and open source Moodle
platform. It contains powerpoint presentations, pdf articles, discussion forums, a chatroom
and more. I will also use this site to post additional questions and topics for your essays.

Please login (using your RHUL network username and password) to the site at:
http://moodle.rhul.ac.uk

I invite you to ask questions in the forum. Help each other out. You can say what you like, so
long as it is not libellous or profane!

The course Moodle site allows direct online access or contains information on how to
access each core reading contained in this list. When you prepare for class, make sure
you log on to Moodle first and check the relevant lectures box: it will save you precious
time in accessing the readings.

Guidelines for Course Email2
As a golden rule, if it is likely to take more than a sentence or two to answer your
query, please use my office hours.

2 Thanks to Dr Alister Miskimmon for these guidelines.

I will not answer emails during the weekend.


I will also not be available to respond to emails outside of normal working hours.
I will, however, endeavour to answer emails as soon as I can. I am sure you can
understand that I receive a lot of emails and it may not be possible to respond
immediately.
Please also recognise that it is good practice and preparation for your future careers to
get into the habit of writing formal emails.


8. Texts


The texts for this course are:

Brian McNair, An Introduction to Political Communication,
Routledge, 2011 (fifth edition).

The latest edition of a best-selling text in the field of political
communication, this book provides a comprehensive overview of
most of the topics in the course. Referred to as McNair (2011)
throughout the reading list.

You should purchase a copy of this book.
You can also read this book online at https://www-dawsonera-
com.ezproxy01.rhul.ac.uk/abstract/9780203828694

Erik Albk, Arjen Van Dalen, Nael Jebril, & Claes de Vreese
(2014). Political journalism in comparative perspective. Cambridge
University Press.

A ground-breaking study on journalists, media coverage of
politics, and its effects on the audience in Denmark, Spain, and the
United Kingdom. Referred to as Albaek et al (2014) throughout
the reading list.

You should purchase a copy of this book.
You can also read this book online at
http://ebooks.cambridge.org/ebook.jsf?bid=CBO9781139567367


General books
Useful general books, which either provide an overview of many, but not all, elements of the
course, or are stimulating and thought provoking, include those listed below. Please note that
I have generally not listed these books in the individual subject readings. Use these books as a
collection of resources if you need to put the weekly headings in a broader context, or require
inspiration for an essay.
Aalberg, T., & Curran, J. (Eds.). (2012). How media inform democracy: A comparative
approach. Routledge.

Chadwick, A. (2013). The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power. Oxford University
Press.
Esser, F., & Pfetsch, B. (2004). Comparing political communication: Theories, cases, and
challenges: Cambridge University Press.
Kaid, L. L., & Holz-Bacha, C. (2007). Encyclopedia of political communication: SAGE
Publications.
Negrine, R. M. (2008). The transformation of political communication: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Semetko, H. A., & Scammell, M. (2012). The SAGE handbook of political communication:
SAGE Publications.
Stanyer, J. (2007). Modern political communications: mediated politics in uncertain
times: Polity.


Important Note
Single books can provide nothing more than summaries of debates and issues: they are no
substitute for reading specialist studies and arguments for yourself. As far as possible, you
should avoid becoming dependent on any single text, and you should aim to read as widely as
you can. You will not be able to get through the whole reading list for each week but be
resourceful and strategicbriefly look at different readings then concentrate on those ideas
which particularly appeal to you.
You are NOT expected to read all of the items on the list. But you ARE expected to read all the
readings identified as Core reading and to read as widely as possible about the subjects you
research for your essays. You must not rely on the textbooks alone.
If the books on this list are out of the library, there are usually relevant books at the same
shelf mark. If during your research you come across interesting books that the library does
not own, please let me know by email and I will ask the library to place an order as soon as
possible.

Scholarly Journals
It is also a good idea to keep an eye on the many scholarly journals and periodicals which
include material related to this course. A selection is included below. All of these are held by
Royal Holloway and are also available as e-journals through the library catalogue. You can
access them from any location using the Campus Anywhere VPN service (see
http://www.rhul.ac.uk/it/faq/itfaqs/vpn/faqwebvpn.aspx).

Good journals which almost always contain useful and up to date articles on political
communication include:
European Journal of Communication
Information, Communication and Society
International Journal of Communication
International Journal of Press Politics
Journalism
Journal of Communication
Journal of Information Technology and Politics
Journal of Political Marketing
New Media & Society
Party Politics
Political Communication
Social Media and Society

10


Gateways to Academic Research
Writing your essays will require you to do some independent research as well as consulting
both core and recommended readings. The best places to start are ISI Web of Science
(http://apps.webofknowledge.com/) and Scopus (http://www.scopus.com/). These are
databases that allow to search for any document that has been published on peer-reviewed
academic journals. The same query on each database will generate slightly different results
because they differ in the publications they index. Most if not all results from these datasets
can be considered as trustworthy academic literature that you can safely cite. However,
books, edited volumes, and the journals that are not indexed by these databases will not be
featured among the results of your searches.
Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.co.uk/) is a handy search engine for academic research,
but it does not differentiate between high-quality peer-reviewed journal articles and less
reliable documents such as conference papers, research reports, and even newspaper articles.
However, it has the advantage of covering books and edited books, which the other two
citation indices do not include, as well as more specific or novel peer-reviewed academic
journals that have not been included into ISI or Scopus yet.

9. A Final Note


Suggestions and improvements to any part of the course outline are most welcome, and will
benefit both you and future students. If you see any problem or room for improvement in any
aspect of the planning or delivery of the course, please come to my office hours or email me to
let me know your thoughts.

I hope you enjoy the course!

Cristian Vaccari
Last updated 21 September 2015

11

10. Lecture Topics and Reading



Note: the course Moodle site allows direct online access or contains information on
how to access each core reading contained in this list. When you prepare for class,
make sure you log on to Moodle first and check the relevant lectures box: it will save
you precious time in accessing the readings.

Lecture 1: Introduction to the Course


To-do list
Read this reading list
Buy McNair (2011) and Albaek et al. (2014)
Read Chapter 1 of both books
Log on to the course website on Moodle, explore the resources available, and get
accustomed to it.


12

Lecture 2: Democracy and the Media



Seminar/essay questions
Democracy can be defined as government by opinion. Discuss the roles of the media
in light of this argument.
Journalism is another name for democracy or, better, you cannot have journalism
without democracy. Discuss.
Which role do the media perform most poorly in contemporary Western democracies?
That of a public forum, a mobilizing agent, or a watchdog?
Are there trade-offs between the medias democratic roles as civic forum, mobilizing
agent, and watchdog? Can the media do all these at once?
In 1787, Thomas Jefferson wrote: The basis of our governments being the opinion of
the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to
decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers
without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. Discuss.

Core reading
Norris (2000). A Virtuous Circle: Political Communication in Postindustrial Societies,
Cambridge University Press, Chapter 2 (Evaluating Media Performance).
McNair (2011). Chapter 2 (Politics, Democracy and the Media).

Supplementary reading
Keane, J. (2013). Democracy and Media Decadence. Cambridge University Press.
Parkinson, J. (2012). Democracy and Public Space: The Physical Sites of Democratic
Performance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Plattner, M. F. (2012). Media and deMocracy: the long view. Journal of
Democracy, 23(4), 62-73.
Street, J. (2011). Mass media, politics and democracy: Palgrave Macmillan.
Dahlgren, P. (2009) Media and Political Engagement: Citizens, Communication, and
Democracy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Schudson, M. (2008). Why democracies need an unlovable press. Polity.
Baker, C. E. (2006). Media concentration and democracy: Why ownership matters.
Cambridge University Press.
Strmbck, J. (2005). In Search of a Standard: four models of democracy and their
normative implications for journalism. Journalism Studies, 6(3), 331-345.
Schudson, M. (1998). The good citizen: A history of American civic life: Martin Kessler
Books New York.
Manin, B. (1997) The Principles of Representative Government, Cambridge University
Press.
Keane, J. (1991). The media and democracy: Polity Press.
Bobbio, N. (1987). The future of democracy: A defense of the rules of the game.
Cambridge: Polity Press.
Sartori, G. (1987). The theory of democracy revisited. Part 1, The contemporary debate:
Chatham House.
Lippmann, W. (1946). Public opinion: Transaction Publishers.

13

Lecture 3: Media as Political Actors



Seminar/essay questions
Politicians should be kept accountable by the media, but no one keeps the media
accountable. Discuss.
Not only do the media report politics; they are a crucial part of the environment in
which politics is pursued. Discuss.
What are the limits of media power in contemporary democracies?

Core reading
McNair (2011). Chapter 4 (The Political Media) and 5 (The Media as Political
Actors).
Albaek et al. (2014). Chapter 3 (Journalists: The People Behind the Headlines).
Ladd, J. M., & Lenz, G. S. (2009). Exploiting a rare communication shift to document the
persuasive power of the news media. American Journal of Political Science, 53(2), 394-
410.

Supplementary reading
Graber, D. A. (2012). On Media: Making Sense of Politics: Oxofrd University Press.
Sobieraj, S. (2011). Soundbitten: The perils of media-centered political activism. NYU
Press.
Wolfsfeld, G. (2011). Making sense of media and politics: Five principles in political
communication: Taylor & Francis.
Blumbler and Coleman (2010). Political Communication in Freefall: The British Case-
and Others? International Journal of Press/Politics, 15(2): 139-154.
Curran, J., & Seaton, J. (2010). Power without responsibility: the press, broadcasting and
the internet in Britain: Taylor & Francis.
McNair, B. (2009). News and Journalism in the UK: Routledge.
Riddell, P. (2009). Political Journalism, in M. Flinders et al. (ed.) The Oxford handbook of
British politics: Oxford University Press.
Strmbck, J. (2008). Four phases of mediatization: An analysis of the mediatization of
politics. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 13(3), 228-246.
Castells, M. (2007). Communication, power and counter-power in the network society.
International journal of communication, 1(1), 238-266.
Davis, A. (2007). Investigating journalist influences on political issue agendas at
Westminster. Political communication, 24(2), 181-199.
Gavin, N. T. (2007). Press and television in British politics: media, money and mediated
democracy: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gitlin, T. (2007). Media Unlimited, Revised Edition: How the Torrent of Images and
Sounds Overwhelms Our Lives: Henry Holt & Company.
Kuhn, R. (2007). Politics and the Media in Britain: Palgrave Macmillan.
Barnett, S., & Gaber, I. (2001). Westminster Tales: the twenty-first-century crisis in
political journalism: Continuum.


14

Lecture 4: Political News



Seminar/essay questions
News does not exist as such. It is always the outcome of social construction. Discuss.
Are journalists and politicians on the same side?
Are political and media elites the sole arbiters of what becomes news?
Why are there tensions in the relationship between politicians and the media?
Is the content of political news in the UK consistent with the needs of informed
democratic citizenship?
Have changes brought about by the internet affected the relationship between
journalists and politicians?

Core reading
Albaek et al. (2014). Chapter 5 (Do Role Conceptions Matter?).
Chadwick (2011). The Political Information Cycle in a Hybrid News System: The British
Prime Minister and the Bullygate Affair. International Journal of Press/Politics, 16(1):
3-29.
Davis, A. (2007). The mediation of power: A critical introduction: Routledge, Chapter 3
(Media production, discursive practices, news production and the mobilization of bias
in public discourse).

Supplementary reading
Chadwick, A. (2013). The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power: Oxford University
Press.
Soroka, S. N., Redko, O., & Albaugh, Q. (2013). Television in the Legislature: The Impact
of Cameras in the House of Commons. Parliamentary Affairs. doi: 10.1093/pa/gst017.
Chadwick, A. (2011). Britain's first live televised party leaders debate: From the news
cycle to the political information cycle. Parliamentary Affairs, 64(1), 24-44.
Davis (2010). Political Communication and Social Theory, Routledge, Chapter 5
(Journalist-Source Relations, Mediated Reflexivity and the Politics of Politics).
Newman, N. (2010). #UKelection2010, mainstream media and the role of the internet:
How social and digital media affected the business of politics and journalism, Reuters
Institute for the Study of Journalism, available at
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/publication/rise-social-media-and-its-
impact-mainstream-journalism
Wallsten (2010) Yes We Can: How Online Viewership, Blog Discussion, Campaign
Statements, and Mainstream Media Coverage Produced a Viral Video Phenomenon,
Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 7(2), 163-181.
Scammell and Semetko (2008). Election News Coverage in the U.K.. In Stromback and
Kaid (Eds), The Handbook of Election News Coverage Around the World, Routledge.
Strmbck, J., & Kaid, L. L. (2008). The handbook of election news coverage around the
world: Routledge.
Davis, A. (2007). The mediation of power: a critical introduction: Routledge.
Gibbons, V. (2007). Lights, camera, inaction? The media reporting of parliament.
Parliamentary Affairs, 60(4), 700-708.
Barker, R. (2001). Legitimating identities: the self-presentations of rulers and subjects:
Cambridge University Press.
Franklin, B. (1996). Keeping it Bright, Light and Trite: changing newspaper reporting
of Parliament. Parliamentary Affairs, 49(2), 298-315.

15

Lecture 5: News Management and Political Public Relations



Seminar/essay questions
Are political public relations a form of manipulation or the only effective way to inform
the public?
Is it fair for government to use taxpayers money to communicate what it is doing in a
way that is intended to boost its popularity?
The media impression is as important, if not more important, than the reality of the
daily business of government. Discuss.
Does politicians use of public relations techniques make it easier or harder for
journalists to do their jobs?
What government chooses to tell us through its public relations machine is one thing;
the information in use by participants in the countrys real government is another.
Discuss.
Who benefits the most from the changes in news production and the development of
political public relations? Politicians, journalists, interest groups, or citizens?
Core reading
McNair (2011). Chapter 7 (Party Political Communication II: Political Public
Relations).
Albaek et al. (2014). Chapter 4 (Journalists and Politicians: A Troubled Relationship?)
Stromback, J., & Kiousis, S. (2011). Political public relations: principles and applications:
Taylor & Francis, Chapter 1 (Political Public Relations: Defining and Mapping an
Emergent field).

Supplementary reading
Price, L. (2014). Where power lies: prime ministers v the media. Simon and Schuster.
Stromback, J., & Kiousis, S. (2011). Political public relations: principles and applications:
Taylor & Francis.
Campus, D. (2010). Mediatization and personalization of politics in Italy and France:
The cases of Berlusconi and Sarkozy. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 15(2),
219-235.
Rottinghaus, B. (2009). Strategic leaders: Determining successful presidential opinion
leadership tactics through public appeals. Political Communication, 26(3), 296-316.
Seymour-Ure, C. (2008). Prime ministers and the media: issues of power and control:
Wiley.
Daddow, O. (2007). Playing games with history: Tony Blair's European policy in the
press. The British Journal of Politics & International Relations, 9(4), 582-598.
Kernell, S. (2007) Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential Leadership,
Congressional Quarterly Press, Washington, DC, 4th ed.
Needham, C. (2005) Brand Leaders: Clinton, Blair and the Limitations of the
Permanent Campaign. Political Studies 53 (2), pp. 343-361.
Wring, D. (2005). Politics and the Media: The Hutton Inquiry, the Public Relations
State, and Crisis at the BBC. Parliamentary Affairs, 58(2), 380-393.
Davis (2002). Public Relations Democracy: Public Relations, Politics and the Mass Media
in Britain, Manchester University Press.
Ornstein, N., Mann, T. (eds) (2000) The Permanent Campaign and its Future, American
Enterprise Institute and The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC.
Jacobs, L. R., & Shapiro, R. Y. (2000). Politicians don't pander: Political manipulation and
the loss of democratic responsiveness: University of Chicago Press.

16

Lecture 6: The Audience for Political News



Seminar/essay questions
In a market-based environment, the media should not be blamed for giving the people
what they want. Discuss.
Is the fully informed citizen a sustainable model for how contemporary citizens
should get their political information?
Are citizens better off now that they can choose which news they get and which ones
they avoid?
Is the fragmentation of media audiences positive or negative for democracies?

Core reading
Prior (2007). News v. Entertainment: How Increasing Media Choice Widens Gaps in
Political Knowledge and Turnout. American Journal of Political Science, 49 (3): 594-
609.
Zaller, J. (2003) A New Standard of News Quality: Burglar Alarms for the Monitorial
Citizen. Political Communication, 20(2), 109-130 (see also the responses by Bennett,
Graber and Patterson in the same journal issue).
Albaek et al. (2014). Chapter 7 (Does Infotainment Journalism Lead to Political
Cynicism?).

Supplementary reading
Hansard Society (2015). Audit of Political Engagement 12, available at
http://www.auditofpoliticalengagement.org/media/reports/Audit-of-Political-
Engagement-12-2015.pdf
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2015). Reuters Institute Digital News
Report 2015, available at http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/
UK Office of Communications (2015). Adults Media Use and Attitudes Report, available
at http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/media-literacy/media-lit-
10years/2015_Adults_media_use_and_attitudes_report.pdf
Carpentier, N., Schrder, K. C., & Hallett, L. (Eds.). (2013). Audience Transformations:
Late Modernity's Shifting Audience Positions: Shifting Audience Positions in Late
Modernity. Routledge.
Tewksbury, D., & Rittenberg, J. (2012). News on the Internet: Information and
Citizenship in the 21st Century: Oxford University Press.
Webster, J. G., & Ksiazek, T. B. (2012). The dynamics of audience fragmentation: Public
attention in an age of digital media. Journal of Communication, 62(1), 39-56.
Anderson, C. W. (2011). Deliberative, agonistic, and algorithmic audiences:
Journalism's vision of its public in an age of audience transparency. International
Journal of Communication, 5, 19.
Althaus, S. L., Cizmar, A. M., & Gimpel, J. G. (2009). Media supply, audience demand, and
the geography of news consumption in the United States. Political Communication,
26(3), 249-277.
Dalton, R. J. (2008). The good citizen: How a younger generation is reshaping American
politics. SAGE.
Couldry, N., Livingstone, S. M., & Markham, T. (2007). Media consumption and public
engagement: Beyond the presumption of attention: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hamilton (2006). All the News That's Fit to Sell: How the Market Transforms
Information into News, Princeton University Press.

17

Lipsitz, K., Trost, C., Grossmann, M., & Sides, J. (2005). What voters want from political
campaign communication. Political Communication, 22(3), 337-354.
Webster, J. G. (2005). Beneath the veneer of fragmentation: Television audience
polarization in a multichannel world. Journal of communication, 55(2), 366-382.
Buckingham, D. (2002). The making of citizens: Young people, news and politics.
Routledge.
Tewksbury, D., Weaver, A. J., & Maddex, B. D. (2001). Accidentally informed: Incidental
news exposure on the World Wide Web. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly,
78(3), 533-554.
Schudson, M. (1998). The good citizen: A history of American civic life. New York: Martin
Kessler Books.
Morley, D. (1992). Television, audiences and cultural studies. Routledge.
Ang, I. (1991). Desperately seeking the audience. Routledge.
Zukin, C., & Snyder, R. (1984). Passive learning: When the media environment is the
message. Public Opinion Quarterly, 48(3), 629-638.

18

Lecture 7: Comparing Media Systems I: Features and Models



Seminar/essay questions
Is there still a role for public service broadcasting in the contemporary media ecology?
Can Hallin and Mancinis models of media-politics relationships really travel beyond
the Western world?
Is it accurate to classify the media systems in the US and the UK in the same category?
Does the Liberal model of journalism always produce desirable outcomes from the
standpoint of democracy?
Has the medias protracted business crisis jeopardized their role in democracy?

Core reading
Hallin and Mancini (2004), Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and
Politics, Cambridge University Press. Chapter 4 (Media and Political Systems and the
Question of Differentiation).
Hardy, J. (2010). Western media systems. Routledge, Chapter 2 (Media System
Evolution).
Albaek et al. (2014). Chapter 2 (Comparing Political Journalism).

Supplementary reading
Helberger, N, Burri, M. (Eds.) (2015). Public Service Media and Exposure Diversity.
International Journal of Communication, vol. 9, special section, all articles.
Brgermann, M., Engesser, S., Bchel, F., Humprecht, E., & Castro, L. (2014) Hallin and
Mancini revisited: four empirical types of western media systems. Journal of
Communication 64, 1037-1065.
Open Society Foundation (2014). Digital Journalism: Making News, Breaking News,
Open Society Foundations, available at
http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/mapping-digital-media-
overviews-20140828.pdf
Papathanassopoulos, S., & Negrine, R. M. (2013). European Media. John Wiley & Sons.
de Albuquerque, A. (2013). Media/politics connections: beyond political parallelism.
Media, Culture & Society 35(6): 742-758.
Chakravartty, P., & Roy, S. (2013). Media Pluralism Redux: Towards New Frameworks
of Comparative Media Studies Beyond the West. Political Communication, 30(3), 349-
370.
Voltmer, K. (2013). The media in transitional democracies: John Wiley & Sons.
Cushion, S. (2012). The Democratic Value of News: Why Public Service Media Matter:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Hallin, D. C., & Mancini, P. (2012). Comparing media systems beyond the western world:
Cambridge University Press.
Mancini, P., Zielonka, J. (Eds.) (2012). Special issue on the structure and performance
of the news media in Central and Eastern Europe. The International Journal of
Press/Politics, 17(4), all articles.
Nielsen, R.K. (2012). Ten Years that Shook the Media World: Big Questions and Big
Trends in International Media Developments, Reuters Institute for the Study of
Journalism, available at https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/publication/ten-
years-shook-media-world
Szpunar, P. M. (2012). Western journalisms Other: The legacy of the Cold War in the
comparative study of journalism. Journalism, 13(1), 3-20.

19

Brown and Gitlin (2011). Partisans, Watchdogs, and Entertainers: The Press for
Democracy and its Limits. In Edwards, Jacobs and Shapiro (Eds), The Oxford Handbook
of American Public Opinion and the Media. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
Nordicom (2010). International Media and Communication Statistics, available at
http://www.nordicom.gu.se/sites/default/files/publikationer-hela-
pdf/nmt12_a_sampler_of_0.pdf
Tunstall, J. (2008). The media were American: US mass media in decline. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Hanitzsch, T. (2007). Deconstructing journalism culture: Toward a universal
theory. Communication theory, 17(4), 367-385.

20

Lecture 8: Comparing Media Systems II: Differences that Make a Difference



Seminar/essay questions
Does the presence of a strong public service broadcaster affect medias ability to
perform as civic forums, mobilizing agents, and watchdogs?
How does political parallelism affect the medias ability to perform as civic forums,
mobilizing agents, and watchdogs?
Why do journalists in different media systems portray the same issues differently?

Core reading
Albaek et al. (2014). Chapter 6 (What Type of Journalism Produces Public
Knowledge?).
Curran et al. (2009). Media Systems, Public Knowledge and Democracy: A Comparative
Study. European Journal of Communication, 24(1): 5-26.
van Kempen (2007). Media-Party Parallelism and Its Effects. Political Communication,
24(3): 303-320.

Supplementary reading
arkolu, A., Baruh, L., & Yldrm, K. (2014). Press-Party Parallelism and Polarization
of News Media during an Election Campaign The Case of the 2011 Turkish
Elections. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 19(3), 295-317.
Powers, M., & Benson, R. (2014). Is the Internet Homogenizing or Diversifying the
News? External Pluralism in the U.S., Danish, and French Press. The International
Journal of Press/Politics, 19(2), 246-265.
Benson, R. (2013). Shaping immigration news: a French-American comparison.
Cambridge University Press.
Mancini, P. (2013). Media fragmentation, party system, and democracy. The
International Journal of Press/Politics, 18(1), 43-60.
Meffert and Hopmann (2012). Media Selection and Partisan Fragmentation: A
Comparative Study of Advanced Western Democracies, conference paper, available at
http://apsapolicommpreconference.weebly.com/uploads/1/2/8/0/12803661/meffer
thopmann-2012-pc-apsa.pdf
Hanitzsch, T., Hanusch, F., Mellado, C., Anikina, M., Berganza, R., Cangoz, I., . . . Karadjov,
C. D. (2011). Mapping journalism cultures across nations: A comparative study of 18
countries. Journalism Studies, 12(3), 273-293.
Hanitzsch, T., & Mellado, C. (2011). What shapes the news around the world? How
journalists in eighteen countries perceive influences on their work. The International
Journal of Press/Politics, 16(3), 404-426.
Aalberg, T., Van Aelst, P., & Curran, J. (2010). Media systems and the political
information environment: A cross-national comparison. The International Journal of
Press/Politics, 15(3), 255-271.
Archetti, C. (2010). Explaining news: national politics and journalistic cultures in global
context. Palgrave Macmillan.
Iyengar, S., Curran, J., Lund, A. B., Salovaara-Moring, I., Hahn, K. S., & Coen, S. (2010).
Cross-National versus individual-level differences in political information: a media
systems perspective. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 20(3), 291-309.
Sunstein, C. R. (2009). Republic. com 2.0. Princeton University Press.

21

Papacharissi, Z., & de Fatima Oliveira, M. (2008). News frames terrorism: A


comparative analysis of frames employed in terrorism coverage in US and UK
newspapers. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 13(1), 52-74.
Quandt, T. (2008). News on the World Wide Web? A comparative content analysis of
online news in Europe and the United States. Journalism Studies,9(5), 717-738.
Toka, G. (2008). Citizen information, election outcomes and good governance. Electoral
Studies, 27(1), 31-44.
Arceneaux, K. (2006). Do campaigns help voters learn? A cross-national
analysis. British Journal of Political Science, 36(01), 159-173.
Esser, F., & dAngelo, P. (2006). Framing the Press and Publicity Process in US, British,
and German General Election Campaigns A Comparative Study of Metacoverage. The
Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 11(3), 44-66.
Ferree, M. M. (Ed.). (2002). Shaping abortion discourse: Democracy and the public
sphere in Germany and the United States. Cambridge University Press.
Deuze, M. (2002). National news cultures: A comparison of Dutch, German, British,
Australian, and US journalists. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 79(1), 134-
149.
Gunther, R., & Mughan, A. (2000). Democracy and the media: A comparative perspective.
Cambridge University Press.

22

Lecture 9: Journalistic Objectivity and Its Discontents



Seminar/essay questions
Why is political news biased?
Is bias inevitable in political news?
Is journalistic objectivity a universal value?
Should journalists working for public service media be held to different ethical
standards than journalists working for commercial enterprises?
Should those who post and circulate news on the web and on social media be as
objective as professional journalists?

Core reading
Ward (2008). Truth and Objectivity. In Wilikins and Christians (ed.), The Handbook of
Mass Media Ethics, Routledge.
Albaek et al. (2014). Chapter 8 (Good Journalism, Satisfied Citizens?).
Entman, R. M. (2007) Framing Bias: Media in the Distribution of Power, Journal of
Communication 57: 163-173.
Newspaper and Magazine Publishing in the U.K., Editors Code of Practice, available at
http://www.pcc.org.uk/assets/696/Code_of_Practice_2012_A4.pdf

Supplementary reading
Loyd, J. (2012). Truth Matters: The BBC and Our Need for it to Be Right, Reuters
Institute for the Study of Journalism, available at
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/publication/truth-matters
Entman, R. M. (2010). Media framing biases and political power: Explaining slant in
news of Campaign 2008. Journalism, 11(4), 389-408.
Baum, M. A., & Groeling, T. (2008). New media and the polarization of American
political discourse. Political Communication, 25(4), 345-365.
Bennett, W. L., Lawrence, R. G., & Livingston, S. (2008). When the press fails: Political
power and the news media from Iraq to Katrina. University of Chicago Press.
Deuze, M. (2008). The changing context of news work: Liquid journalism and
monitorial citizenship. International journal of communication, 2(5), 848-865.
Rosen, J. (2008). The People Formerly Known as the Audience, available at
http://archive.pressthink.org/2006/06/27/ppl_frmr.html
Wilkins, L., & Christians, C. G. (2008). The handbook of mass media ethics: Routledge.
Bruns, A. (2005). Gatewatching: Collaborative online news production: Peter Lang.
Deuze, M. (2005). What is journalism? Professional identity and ideology of journalists
reconsidered. Journalism, 6(4), 442-464.
Entman, R. M. (2003). Cascading activation: Contesting the White House's frame after
9/11. Political Communication, 20(4), 415-432.
Hafez, K. (2002). Journalism ethics revisited: A comparison of ethics codes in Europe,
North Africa, the Middle East, and Muslim Asia. Political Communication, 19(2), 225-
250.
Laitila, T. (1995). Journalistic codes of ethics in Europe. European Journal of
Communication, 10(4), 527-544.

23

Lecture 10: Popular Politics and Intimate Politics



Essay 1 due!

Seminar/essay questions
What do citizens gain and what do they lose from the popularization of politics?
What do politicians gain and what do they lose from the popularization of politics?
Does it still make sense to differentiate between elite and popular media?
How does politicians use of social media contribute to the popularization and
intimization of politics?
Can fake news constitute a form of journalism?
Should we be worried about the dumbing down of politics in contemporary political
communication?
If a politician courts publicity he or she cannot complain about negative exposure
when it arises. Discuss.

Core reading
Baym (2005). The Daily Show: Discursive integration and the reinvention of political
journalism. Political Communication, 22(3): 259-276.
Richards, B. (2004) The Emotional Deficit in Political Communication. Political
Communication, 21(3): 339-352.
Stanyer (2007). Modern Political Communications: Mediated Politics In Uncertain Terms,
Polity Press, Chapter 3 (Perosnalized Politics and the Erosion of Privacy).

Supplementary reading
Ahva, L., Heikkil, H., Siljamki, J., & Valtonen, S. (2014). A bridge over troubled water?
Celebrities in journalism connecting implicit and institutional politics. Journalism,
15(2), 186-201.
Wilson, J. (2014). Kevin Rudd, celebrity and audience democracy in Australia.
Journalism, 15(2), 202-217.
Stanyer, J. (2013). Intimate Politics: John Wiley & Sons.
Day, A., & Thompson, E. (2012). Live from New York, it's the fake news! Saturday Night
Live and the (non) politics of parody. Popular Communication, 10(1-2), 170-182.
Mancini, P. (2011). Between Commodification and Lifestyle Politics: Does Silvio
Berlusconi Provide a New Model of Politics for the Twenty-first Century? , Reuters
Institute for the Study of Journalism, available at
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/publication/between-commodification-and-
lifestyle-politics
Langer, A. I. (2010). The politicization of private persona: Exceptional leaders or the
new rule? The case of the United Kingdom and the Blair effect. The International
Journal of Press/Politics, 15(1), 60-76.
Baym, G. (2009). From Cronkite to Colbert: The Evolution of Broadcast News: Paradigm
Publishers.
Gray, J. A., Jones, J. P., & Thompson, E. (2009). Satire TV: Politics and comedy in the post-
network era: NYU Press.
Baum, M. A., & Jamison, A. S. (2006). The Oprah effect: How soft news helps inattentive
citizens vote consistently. Journal of Politics, 68(4), 946-959.
Baumgartner, J., & Morris, J. S. (2006). The Daily Show Effect Candidate Evaluations,
Efficacy, and American Youth. American Politics Research, 34(3), 341-367.

24

Baum, M. A. (2005). Talking the vote: Why presidential candidates hit the talk show
circuit. American Journal of Political Science, 49(2), 213-234.
Jones, J. P. (2005). Entertaining politics: New political television and civic culture:
Rowman & Littlefield Pub Inc.
Lunt, P., & Stenner, P. (2005). The Jerry Springer Show as an emotional public sphere.
Media, Culture & Society, 27(1), 59-81.
Esser, F. (1999). Tabloidization'of News A Comparative Analysis of Anglo-American
and German Press Journalism. European Journal of Communication, 14(3), 291-324.
Brants, K. (1998). Who's afraid of infotainment?. European Journal of
Communication, 13(3), 315-335.
Langer, J. (1998). Tabloid Television, Popular Journalism and the Other News: Taylor &
Francis.
Zaller, J. R. (1998). Monica Lewinsky's contribution to political science. PS: Political
Science and Politics, 31(2), 182-189.

25

Lecture 11: Strategy in Election Campaigns


Seminar/essay questions
Has political marketing improved the ways in which politicians engage with voters?
Is it appropriate for politicians to treat citizens as consumers?
To what extent can campaign strategies affect the ways in which campaigns unfold?
What factors can derail even the smartest political strategy?

Core reading
Burton, M. J., & Shea, D. M. (2002). Campaign mode: Strategic vision in congressional
elections. Rowman & Littlefield, chapter 1 (Campaign mode and professional
understanding).
Broadshaw (2009), "Who Will Vote for You and Why: Designing Strategy and Theme",
chapter 3 in Thurber and Nelson (Eds), Campaigns and Elections American Style,
Westview Press, 3rd edition.
Popkin, S. L. (2012). The Candidate: What it Takes to Win-and Hold-the White House.
Oxford University Press., Chapter 2 (Planning for Chaos).

Supplementary reading
Scammell, M. (2014). Consumer Democracy: The Marketing of Politics. Cambridge
University Press.
Sides, J., & Vavreck, L. (2014). The gamble: Choice and chance in the 2012 presidential
election. Princeton University Press.
Johansen, H. P. (2012). Relational Political Marketing in Party-centred Democracies:
Because We Deserve it. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd..
Lees-Marshment, J. (Ed.). (2012). Routledge handbook of political marketing. New York:
Routledge.
Tenscher, J., Mykknen, J., & Moring, T. (2012). Modes of Professional Campaigning: A
Four-Country Comparison in the European Parliamentary Elections, 2009. The
International Journal of Press/Politics, 17(2), 145-168.
Lees-Marshment, J., Rudd, C., & Stromback, J. (2010). Global political marketing: Taylor
& Francis.
Henneberg, S. C., & O'Shaughnessy, N. J. (2009). Political relationship marketing: some
macro/micro thoughts. Journal of Marketing Management,25(1-2), 5-29.
Sanders, K. (2009). Communicating politics in the twenty-first century: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Bannon, D. P. (2005). Relationship marketing and the political process. Journal of
Political Marketing, 4(2-3), 73-90.
Wring, D. (2005). The politics of marketing the Labour Party: Palgrave Macmillan.
Druckman, J. N., Jacobs, L. R., & Ostermeier, E. (2004). Candidate strategies to prime
issues and image. Journal of Politics, 66(4), 1180-1202.
Franklin, B. (2004) Packaging Politics: Political Communications in Britains Media
Democracy, Arnold.
Lees-Marshment, J. (2004) The Political Marketing Revolution, Manchester University
Press.
Farrell, D. M., Kolodny, R., & Medvic, S. (2001). Parties and Campaign Professionals in a
Digital Age: Political Consultants in the United States and Their Counterparts Overseas.
The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 6(4), 11-30.

26

Gibson, R., & Rmmele, A. (2001). Changing campaign communications: a party-


centered theory of professionalized campaigning. The Harvard International Journal of
Press/Politics, 6(4), 31-43.
Shea, D. M., & Burton, M. J. (2001). Campaign craft: The strategies, tactics, and art of
political campaign management: Praeger.
Plasser (2000). American Campaign Techniques Worldwide. International Journal of
Press/Politics, 5, 4, pp. 33-54.
Thurber, J. A., & Nelson, C. J. (2000). Campaign warriors: The role of political consultants
in elections: Brookings Institution Press.
Newman, B. (ed.) (1999) Handbook of Political Marketing. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Scammell, M. (1998). The Wisdom of the War Room: US Campaigning and
Americanization. Media, Culture & Society, 20, 2, pp. 251-275.
Swanson, D. L., & Mancini, P. (1996). Politics, media and modern democracy: An
international study of innovations in electoral campaigning and their consequences:
Praeger.
Scammell, M. (1995). Designer politics: How elections are won. London: Macmillan.

27

Lecture 12: Organization, Technology and Resources in Election


Campaigns


Seminar/essay questions
Despite all the changes in technology, campaigns are always going to be about time,
people and money. Discuss.
U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt's campaign manager Jim Farley once said, "I know
half the money I spend is wasted. I just don't know which half." Discuss.
How can campaigns employ volunteers and supporters effectively?
Has the internet changed the way election campaigns are conducted?

Core reading
Chadwick (2013). The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power, Chapter 6 (Symphonic
Consonance in Campaign Communication: Reinterpreting Obama for America).
Nielsen (2012). Ground Wars: Personalized Communication in Political Campaigns,
Princeton University Press, Chapters 1 (Personalized Political Communication in
American Campaigns) and 6 (Always Fighting the Same Ground War?).
Gibson, R. (2012). From Brochureware to MyBo: An Overview of Online Elections and
Campaigning. Politics, 32(2), 77-84.

Supplementary reading
Enos, R. D., & Hersh, E. D. (2015). Party Activists as Campaign Advertisers: The Ground
Campaign as a Principal-Agent Problem. American Political Science Review, 109(02),
252-278.
Lilleker, D. G., Tenscher, J., & ttka, V. (2015). Towards hypermedia campaigning?
Perceptions of new media's importance for campaigning by party strategists in
comparative perspective. Information, Communication & Society,18(7), 747-765.
Stromer-Galley, J. (2014). Presidential campaigning in the Internet age. Oxford
University Press.
Karpf, D. (2013). The Internet and American Political Campaigns The Forum (Vol. 11,
pp. 413).
Vaccari, C. (2013). Digital Politics in Western Democracies: A Comparative Study: Johns
Hopkins University Press.
Vaccari, C., & Nielsen, R. K. (2013). What Drives Politicians' Online Popularity? An
Analysis of the 2010 US Midterm Elections. Journal of Information Technology &
Politics, 10(2), 208-222.
Vaccari, C. (2013). From Echo Chamber to Persuasive Device? Rethinking the Role of
the Internet in Campaigns. New Media & Society, 15, n. 1, pp. 109-127.
Nielsen, R., Vaccari, C. (2013). Do People like Candidates on Facebook? Not really:
Large-Scale Direct Candidate-to-Voter Online Communication as an Outlier
Phenomenon. International Journal of Communication, 7: 23332356.
Vaccari, C. (2013). From Echo Chamber to Persuasive Device? Rethinking the Role of
the Internet in Campaigns. New Media & Society, 15, n. 1, pp. 109-127.
Pew Global Attitudes Project (2012). Social Networking Popular Across Globe, available
at http://www.pewglobal.org/files/2012/12/Pew-Global-Attitudes-Project-
Technology-Report-FINAL-December-12-2012.pdf
Beck, P., Heidemann, E. (2010). Changing Strategies in Grassroots Canvassing: 1956-
2008, conference paper, available at
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1666576

28

Vaccari (2010). Technology is a Commodity: The Internet in the 2008 United States
Presidential Election. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 7(4): 318-339.
Anstead and Chadwick (2009). Parties, Election Campaigning and the Internet: Toward
a Comparative Institutional Approach. In Chadwick and Howard (Eds), The Routledge
Handbook of Internet Politics, Routledge.
Chadwick (2009). Web 2.0: New Challenges for the Study of E-Democracy in an Era of
Informational Exuberance. I/S: Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society
(5)1: 9-41.
Fisher, J., and D. Denver (2009) Evaluating the Electoral Effects of Traditional and
Modern Modes of Constituency Campaigning in Britain 19922005. Parliamentary
Affairs 62(2): 196-210.
Panagopoulos, C., & Francia, P. L. (2009). Grassroots mobilization in the 2008
presidential election. Journal of Political Marketing, 8(4), 315-333.
Green, D. P., & Gerber, A. S. (2008). Get out the vote: How to increase voter turnout.
Brookings Institution Press.
Norris, P., & Curtice, J. (2008) Getting the Message Out: A Two-Step Model of the Role
of the Internet in Campaign Communication Flows During the 2005 British General
Election. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 4, 313.
Ward, S. (2008). Making a difference: A comparative view of the role of the Internet in
election politics: Lexington Books.
Bennett, W.L., Mannheim, J. (2006) The One-Step Flow of Communication. The ANNALS
of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 608: 613-632.
Howard, P. N. (2006). New media campaigns and the managed citizen: Cambridge
University Press.
Bimber, B. A., & Davis, R. (2003). Campaigning online: The Internet in US elections:
Oxford University Press.
Gibson, R. K., Nixon, P. G., & Ward, S. J. (2003). Political parties and the Internet: net
gain?. Routledge.
Whiteley, P., & Seyd, P. (2003). How to win a landslide by really trying: the effects of
local campaigning on voting in the 1997 British general election. Electoral
Studies, 22(2), 301-324.
Harris, P. (2002). Who Pays the Piper? The Funding of Political Campaigning in the UK,
US and the Consequences for Political Marketing and Public Affairs.Journal of Political
Marketing, 1(2-3), 89-107.
Norris (2000). A Virtuous Circle: Political Communication in Postindustrial Societies,
Cambridge University Press.
Blumler and Kavanagh (1999). The Third Age of Political Communication: Influences
and Features. Political Communication, 16(3): 209-230.

29

Lecture 13: The Conditions for Political Persuasion



There will be no lecture this week, and the seminar will run as normal and will be used
for group discussion of the assigned film.

The seminar will be based upon your discussion of Professor Arthur Lupias keynote speech at
the Internet, Politics, Policy 2010 conference, available at
http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/webcasts/?id=170

You will watch this film IN ADVANCE OF THE SEMINAR online and come to seminar
prepared to discuss it.

For background on the research presented in the talk, you are also advised to read Lupia, A.
(2013). Communicating science in politicized environments. Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, 110(Supplement 3), 14048-14054

30

Lecture 14: The Framing and Counter-Framing of Political Messages



Seminar/essay questions
Identify competing frames as employed in a recent policy debate in the UK media.
Assess the strengths and weaknesses of each frame.
Identify competing frames as employed in the 2014 Scottish Independence
referendum campaign. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of each frame.
Identify competing frames as employed in the 2015 UK general election campaign.
Assess the strengths and weaknesses of each frame.
Identify competing frames as employed in debates about whether the UK should
continue being part of the European Union. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of
each frame.

Core reading
Nelson, T. (2011). Issue Framing. In The Oxford Handbook of American Public Opinion
and the Media, ed. G. Edwards, L. Jacobs, and R. Shapiro.
Schaffner, B., and Atkinson, M. (2010). Taxing Death or Estates? When Frames
Influence Citizens Issue Beliefs. In Schaffner, B. F., & Sellers, P. J. (Eds.). Winning with
words: the origins and impact of political framing. Routledge.
Medvic, S. K. (2006). Understanding Campaign Strategy: Deliberate Priming and the
Role of Professional Political Consultants. Journal of Political Marketing, 5(1-2), 11-32.
Entman, R. M. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of
communication, 43(4), 51-58.

Supplementary reading
Matthes, J. (2012). Framing Politics: An Integrative Approach. American Behavioral
Scientist, 56(3), 247-259.
D'Angelo, P., & Kuypers, J. A. (Eds.). (2010). Doing news framing analysis: Empirical and
theoretical perspectives. Routledge.
Schaffner, B. F., & Sellers, P. J. (Eds.) (2010). Winning with words: the origins and impact
of political framing. Routledge.
Vavreck, L. (2009). The Message Matters: The Economy and Presidential Campaigns: An
Economic Theory of Campaigns. Princeton University Press.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (2008). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago press.
Journal of Communication (2007). Special Issue on Framing, Agenda Setting, & Priming:
Agendas for Theory and Research, 57(1), 8-173 (all articles).
Bartels, L. M. (2005). Homer gets a tax cut: Inequality and public policy in the American
mind. Perspectives on Politics, 3(01), 15-31.
Shepsle, K. A. (2003). Losers in politics (and how they sometimes become winners):
William Riker's heresthetic. Perspective on Politics, 1(02), 307-315.
De Vreese, K. Jochen, P., and Semetko, H. (2001). Framing politics at the launch of the
Euro: A cross-national comparative study of frames in the news. Political
communication, 18(2), 107-122.
Loomis, B. (2000), The Never Ending Story: Campaigns without Elections, in N. Ornstein
e T. Mann (eds.), The Permanent Campaign and Its Future, American Enterprise
Institute and The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, pp. 162-184.
Tewksbury, D., Jones, J., Peske, M. W., Raymond, A., & Vig, W. (2000). The interaction of
news and advocate frames: Manipulating audience perceptions of a local public policy
issue. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 77(4), 804-829.

31

Scheufele, D. A. (1999). Framing as a theory of media effects. Journal of Communication,


49(1), 103-122.
Rhee, J. W. (1997). Strategy and issue frames in election campaign coverage: A social
cognitive account of framing effects. Journal of Communication, 47(3), 26-48.
Iyengar, S. (1987). Television news and citizens' explanations of national affairs.
American Political Science Review, 815-831.
Riker, W. (1986). The Art of Political Manipulation. Yale University Press.

32

Lecture 15: Political Advertising



Seminar/essay questions
Why is advertising useful for campaigns?
What elements characterize an effective political advertisement?
How do party election broadcasts in the UK differ from political ads in the US?
Are negative advertisements dangerous for democracy?
In an era of audience fragmentations, are political advertisements still effective tools to
reach the electorate?
What limitations to political advertising are justifiable to safeguard democratic values?

Core reading
McNair (2011). Chapter 6 (Party Political Communication I: Advertising).
Scammell, Langer (2006). Political Advertising in the United Kingdom. In Kaid and Holz-
Bacha (Eds), The Sage Handbook of Political Advertising, Sage Publications.
vanHeerde-Hudson, J. (2011). The Americanization of British party advertising?
Negativity in party election broadcasts, 19642005. British Politics, 6(1), 52-77.
Museum of the Moving Image, The Living Room Candidate, available at
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/

Supplementary reading
Vaccari, C., Morini, M. (2014). The Power of Smears in Two American Presidential
Campaigns. Journal of Political Marketing, 13(1-2), 19-45.
West, D. M. (2013). Air Wars: Television Advertising and Social Media in Election
Campaigns, 1952-2012. Sage.
Arceneaux, K., & Nickerson, D. W. (2009). Comparing negative and positive campaign
messages: Evidence from two field experiments. American Politics Research.
Kaid, L. L., & Holz-Bacha, C. (2006). The Sage handbook of political advertising: Sage.
Scullion, R., & Dermody, J. (2005). The value of party election broadcasts for electoral
engagement: A content analysis of the 2001 British general election
campaign. International Journal of Advertising, 24(3), 345-372.
Richardson Jr, G. W. (2003). Pulp politics: How political advertising tells the stories of
American politics. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Hodess, R., Tedesco, J. C., & Kaid, L. L. (2000). British Party Election Broadcasts: A
Comparison of 1992 and 1997. The Harvard International Journal of
Press/Politics, 5(4), 55-70.
Jamieson, K. H. (1996). Packaging the presidency: A history and criticism of presidential
campaign advertising: Oxford University Press.
Ansolabehere, S., & Iyengar, S. (1995). Going negative: How political advertising
shrinks and polarizes the electorate: Free Press.
Scammell, M. (1995). Designer politics: How elections are won: Macmillan London.
Diamond, E., & Bates, S. (1992). The spot: The rise of political advertising on television:
The MIT Press.


33

Lecture 16: The 2015 UK General Election



Seminar/essay questions
What were the strategies of the main parties in the UK 2015 general election?
Did the media portray the campaign in a way that helped the voters make up their
minds?
Did the media matter in the outcome of the election?
What resources were crucial in the campaign?
Assess the electoral strategy of the Labour and Conservative parties.

Core reading
Media Standard Trust (2015). Election Unspun: Week-by-Week Analysis of the 2015
General Election. Available at http://electionunspun.net/ Freely explore and browse
data from this impressive content analysis of a diverse range of media outlets and
topics.
Jackson and Thorsen (Eds.) (2015). UK Election Analysis 2015: Media, Voters and the
Campaign. Available at http://www.electionanalysis.uk/ Read all the chapters from
at least one section of your own choosing between Media Reporting, Voters, Polls,
and Results, Political Communication and Image Management, The Nations,
Campaigning and Civil Society, Social Media, Popular Culture, and Media
Influence and Interventions.
Parliamentary Affairs 68 (2015), special issue on Britain Votes read at least one of
the following articles: The Conservatives: Their Sweetest Victory?, Hell, No!
Labour's Campaign: The Correct Diagnosis but the Wrong Doctor?, Party Finance:
The Death of the National Campaign?, Immigration, Issue Ownership and the Rise of
UKIP, Exit Velocity: The Media Election, The General Rejection? Political
Disengagement, Disaffected Democrats and Doing Politics Differently

Supplementary reading
Geddes and Tonge (Eds.) (2015). Britain Votes 2015. Oxford University Press.
Hansard Society (2015). Audit of Political Engagement 12, available at
http://www.auditofpoliticalengagement.org/media/reports/Audit-of-Political-
Engagement-12-2015.pdf
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (2015). Reuters Institute Digital News
Report 2015, available at http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/
UK Office of Communications (2015). Adults Media Use and Attitudes Report, available
at http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/media-literacy/media-lit-
10years/2015_Adults_media_use_and_attitudes_report.pdf
Wring and Ward (2010). The Media and the 2010 Campaign: The Television Election?
Parliamentary Affairs, 63(4): 802-817.
Allen, N., Bara, J., & Bartle, J. (2013). Rules, Strategies and Words: The Content of the
2010 Prime Ministerial Debates. Political Studies, 61, 92-113.
Drake, P., & Higgins, M. (2012). Lights, Camera, Election: Celebrity, Performance and
the 2010 UK General Election Leadership Debates. The British Journal of Politics &
International Relations, 14(3), 375-391.
Wring, D., Mortimore, R., & Atkinson, S. (Eds.). (2011). Political communication in
Britain: The leader debates, the campaign and the media in the 2010 general elections:
Palgrave Macmillan.


34

Lecture 17: The Effects of Political Communication



Seminar/essay questions
In what sense does political communication have strong and weak effects?
To what extent do media effects depend on the message, and to what extent on its
source and context?
Can a well-run campaign get any politician or party elected?
The short-term effects of political messages are much less important than the long-
term ones. Discuss.
Which channels of political information are best suited to provide citizens with
information that increases and broadens their political knowledge?
Compared to thirty years ago, is it easier or more difficult for campaigns to get their
messages across?

Core reading
McNair (2011). Chapter 3 (The Effects of Political Communication).
Iyengar (2011). Media Politics: A Citizens Guide, Norton, W. W. & Company, Chapter 8
(How News Shapes Public Opinion).
Hill, Lo, Vavreck, and Zaller (2013). How Quickly We Forget: The Duration of
Persuasion Effects From Mass Communication. Political Communication 30 (4): 521
47.
Bennett and Iyengar (2008). A New Era of Minimal Effects? The Changing Foundations
of Political Communication. Journal of Communication 58(4): 707-31.

Supplementary reading
Burscher, B., van Spanje, J., & de Vreese, C. H. (2015). Owning the issues of crime and
immigration: The relation between immigration and crime news and anti-immigrant
voting in 11 countries. Electoral Studies, 38, 59-69.
Shephard, M., & Johns, R. (2012). A Face for Radio? How Viewers and Listeners Reacted
Differently to the Third Leaders' Debate in 2010. The British Journal of Politics &
International Relations, 14(1), 1-18.
Bishop and Hyllygus (2011). Campaigning, Debating, Advertising. In The Oxford
Handbook of American Public Opinion and the Media, ed. G. Edwards, L. Jacobs, and R.
Shapiro.
Holbert, R. L., Garrett, R. K., & Gleason, L. S. (2010). A new era of minimal effects? A
response to Bennett and Iyengar. Journal of communication, 60(1), 15-34.
De Vreese (2009). Campaign Communication and Media. In LeDuc, Niemi and Norris
(Eds), Comparing Democracies 3, Sage Publications.
Campus, D., Pasquino, G., & Vaccari, C. (2008). Social networks, political discussion, and
voting in Italy: A study of the 2006 election. Political Communication, 25(4), 423-444.
Gilens, M., Vavreck, L., & Cohen, M. (2007). The mass media and the public's
assessments of presidential candidates, 19522000. Journal of Politics, 69(4), 1160-
1175.
De Vreese, C. H., & Boomgaarden, H. G. (2006). Media Message Flows and Interpersonal
Communication: The Conditional Nature of Effects on Public Opinion. Communication
Research, 33(1), 19-37.
Newton, K. (2006). May the weak force be with you: The power of the mass media in
modern politics. European Journal of Political Research, 45(2), 209-234.

35

Walgrave, S., & Van Aelst, P. (2006). The contingency of the mass media's political
agenda setting power: Toward a preliminary theory. Journal of Communication, 56(1),
88-109.
Farrell, D. M., & Schmitt-Beck, R. (2004). Do political campaigns matter? Campaign
effects in elections and referendums: Routledge.
Gavin, N. T., & Sanders, D. (2003). The press and its influence on British political
attitudes under New Labour. Political Studies, 51(3), 573-591.
Schmitt-Beck, R. (2003). Mass communication, personal communication and vote
choice: The filter hypothesis of media influence in comparative perspective. British
Journal of Political Science, 33(2), 233-259.
Whiteley, P., Seyd, P. (2003) How to Win a Landslide by Really Trying: The Effects of
Local Campaigning on Voting in the 1997 British General Election. Electoral Studies,
22(3): 301324.
Beck, P. A., Dalton, R. J., Greene, S., & Huckfeldt, R. (2002). The social calculus of voting:
Interpersonal, media, and organizational influences on presidential choices. American
Political Science Review, 96(01), 57-73.
Mutz, D. C., & Martin, P. S. (2001). Facilitating communication across lines of political
difference: The role of mass media. American Political Science Review, 95(1), 97-114.
Popkin, S. L. (1994). The reasoning voter: Communication and persuasion in presidential
campaigns. University of Chicago Press.
Iyengar, S. (1987). Television news and citizens' explanations of national affairs. The
American Political Science Review, 815-831.

36

Lecture 18: Political Communication in a Globalizing World



Seminar/essay questions
Are contemporary media truly global?
Has the globalization of political communication blurred the line between domestic
and foreign policy in Western democracies?
In which sense has communication become a key component of any countrys foreign
policy?
The essence of successful warfare is secrecy. The essence of successful journalism is
publicity. Discuss.
Can contemporary global media constitute a transnational public sphere?

Core reading
McNair (2011). Chapter 9 (Political Communication in a Globalised World).
Fraser (2007). Transnationalizing the Public Sphere: On the Legitimacy and Efficacy of
Public Opinion in a Post-Westphalian World, available at
http://eipcp.net/transversal/0605/fraser/en
Roselle, L., Miskimmon, A., & OLoughlin, B. (2014). Strategic narrative: A new means to
understand soft power. Media, War & Conflict, 7(1), 70-84.

Supplementary reading
Miskimmon, A., O'Loughlin, B., & Roselle, L. (2014). Strategic narratives:
Communication power and the new world order. Routledge.
United States Institute of Peace, Blogs and Bullets (all publications), available at
http://www.usip.org/programs/projects/blogs-bullets
Sifry, M. L. (2011). WikiLeaks and the Age of Transparency. OR Books.
Cushion, S., & Lewis, J. (2010). The rise of 24-hour news television: Global perspectives:
Peter Lang.
Hoskins, A., & OLoughlin, B. (2010). War and media: Polity.
McPhail, T. L. (2010). Global communication: Theories, stakeholders, and trends. John
Wiley & Sons.
Thussu, D. K. (2009). International communication: a reader: Routledge.
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (2008). Special issue on
Public Diplomacy in a Changing World (all articles).
Hanson, E. C. (2008). The information revolution and world politics. Rowman &
Littlefield Publishers.
Corman, S. R., Trethewey, A., & Goodall, H. L. (Eds.). (2008). Weapons of mass
persuasion: Strategic communication to combat violent extremism. Peter Lang.
Seib, P. (2008). The Al Jazeera effect: how the new global media are reshaping world
politics: Potomac Books.
Bahador, B. (Ed.). (2007). The CNN effect in action: how the news media pushed the West
toward war in Kosovo. Macmillan.
Hafez, K., & Skinner, A. (2007). The myth of media globalization: Polity.
Roselle, L. (2006). Media and the politics of failure: great powers, communication
strategies, and military defeats. Palgrave Macmillan.
Chalaby, J.K. (ed.) (2005) Transnational Television Worldwide: I.B. Taurus.
Gilboa, E. (2005). The CNN effect: The search for a communication theory of
international relations. Political Communication, 22(1), 27-44.

37

Entman, R. M. (2003). Cascading activation: Contesting the White House's frame after
9/11. Political Communication, 20(4), 415-432.
Robinson, P. (2001) Operation Restore Hope and the Illusion of a News Media Driven
Intervention, Political Studies, 49, 941956.
Bennett, W. L. (1990). Toward a theory of press-state relations in the United States.
Journal of communication, 40(2), 103-127.
Hallin, D. C. (1989). The uncensored war: The media and Vietnam. Univ of California
Press.
Media, War, & Conflict, an excellent specialized journal, is freely available though our
library.

38

Lecture 19: Campaign Ethics



Essay 2 due!

Seminar/essay questions
Is it possible to run perfectly ethical campaigns and be successful?
How can the media provide incentives for candidates to behave ethically?
Should politicians be more closely scrutinized for ethical lapses in their professional
conduct?
Should citizen be directly involved in the ethical scrutiny of politicians, or should they
rely on other institutions and organizations?

Core reading
Maisel (2002). Promises and Persuasion. In Nelson, Dulio and Medic (ed.), Shades of
Gray: Perspectives on Campaign Ethics, Brookings University Press.
American Association of Political Consultants, Code of Professional Ethics, available at
http://www.theaapc.org/default.asp?contentID=701

Supplementary reading
Baines, P. R., & O'shaughnessy, N. J. (2014). Political Marketing and Propaganda: Uses,
Abuses, Misuses. Journal of Political Marketing, 13(1-2), 1-18.
Galeotti, A. E. (2014). Liars or Self-Deceived? Reflections on Political Deception.
Political Studies, doi: 10.1111/1467-9248.12122
Maisel, L. S., West, D. M., & Clifton, B. M. (2007). Evaluating campaign quality:
Cambridge University Press.
Nelson, C. J., Dulio, D. A., & Medvic, S. K. (2002). Shades of gray: perspectives on
campaign ethics: Brookings Institution Press.

39

Lecture 20: Conclusions: Political Communication and the Quality of


Democracy


Note: the seminar will run as a revision session, where you will have the opportunity to
ask questions about the course as a whole. I will also give you some guidance for your
revision.

Core reading
McNair (2011). Chapter 10 (Conclusion: Performance Politics and the Democratic
Process).
Albaek et al. (2014). Chapter 9 (Political Journalism: Today and Tomorrow).



40

SPECIMEN EXAMINATION PAPER



Answer at least three questions from this list.

1. What are the main differences between Polarized Pluralist and Liberal media systems?
2. Compare and contrast modern and postmodern campaigning in the United Kingdom.
3. What does the hybridization of political communication mean for politicians and
voters?
4. Can democracy function given voters limited desire for, and ability to process, the
contents of political news?
5. What are the main principles and tools of political public relations?
6. How does the popularization of politics affect democratic life?
7. Define agenda setting, priming and framing and provide concrete examples of how
these mechanisms work.
8. Discuss the debate between proponents of strong and weak effects of political
communication.
9. Identify and discuss the three most important assets that a party can rely on in an
election campaign.
10. Do the media help citizens acquire the information they need to make reasonable
voting decisions?
11. Are political advertisements more useful to attack opponents than to provide a
positive message?
12. In the age of global political communication, is the distinction between domestic and
foreign politics still relevant?

Note: a copy of last years exam is available through the Librarys website.

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