Media

Question 1

What is Political Communication?

Answer 1

How political preferences, behaviours, and actions are transmitted to the public.
*information flow & exchange
* link between citizens & politics

Question 2

What is Mass Media?

Answer 2

Constant information flow about certain topics

Question 3

Ways of communicating an event (3)

Answer 3

1. Objective: how the event happened
2. Subjective: the event is explained based on how is perceived by government & citizens
3. Constructed: the event covered by the media

Question 4

Media’s characteristics (4)

Answer 4

1. Reinforcement
   Strengthening views
   Polarised environment since people avoid cognitive dissonance
2. Framing
   Event narration, emphasises certain aspects to get reactions
3. Agenda Setting
   The media influencing what people discuss (2nd dimension of pwr)
4. Priming
   Influencing beyond the story

Question 5

Political Communication & Power Dimensions

Answer 5

1. Power prevailing over:
   whoever controls media, controls politics
2. Controlling preferences: people’s actions and thoughts being controlled by media information influencing the political landscape
3. Shaping preferences: government propaganda and disseminated through the media

Question 6

Democracies & the media

Answer 6

· free flow
· multiple channels
· certain control to maintain accountability

Question 7

AR & the media
Aim
Role
The media as a tool

Answer 7

· restricted flow
· one channel
· full control
1. Dissociation, building a parallel reality
2. Strengthen and support the government’s legitimacy by projecting power & security
3. Is a tool for political distortion & societal control

Question 8

Hybrid Regimes & the media

Answer 8

· restricted flow
· multiple but manipulated channels
· full control

Question 9

AR media control (4)

Answer 9

1. Controlling: news flow
2. Stability: boosting the regime’s legitimacy
3. Discredit: limit opposition’s voice by publishing fake news
4. Underminining: other kinds of political regimes to increase power

Question 10

What is Digital Authoritarianism?

Answer 10

A way for AR to surveil domestic technologies through the control and creation of media domination and national networks.

Question 11

Media’s origins & evolution

Answer 11

19th Century: first time presenting political information on newspapers
· increased literacy rate
· mass communication
20th Century
1. 1920s: short-wave radio allowed international communication
2. 1930s: radio broadcasting
· The voice matters (FDR’s fireside chats increased legitimacy)
3. 1950s-90s: satellite and TV retransmitssion
· The image matters (Kennedy-Nixon & Bush-Clinton debates)
· 24h news
4. 2000s: decline in newspapers
· Information is reached through phones
5. 2010s: social media

Question 12

Recent developments in Political Communication

Answer 12

1. Interaction
2. Fragmentation: different views and channels
3. Commercialisation: sponsorship & media monopoly
4. Globalisation: higher information flow due to less state control

Question 13

Digitalisation impacting the media (3)

Answer 13

· There is more manipulation of what people watch and know.
· Increases the divide between the urban and the rural as well as between the young and the old.
· Not everyone has access to the same information which increases tensions regarding true knowledge.

Question 14

Digitalisation impacting democracies (4)

Answer 14

· It undermines democratic values since media doesn’t go hand in hand with political freedom.
· threatens pluralism
· less editorial independence
· media is tied to corporation’s interests

Question 15

What is the Transmission Model? (5)

Answer 15

the model highlighting what and how it is conveyed
1. what is the message & purpose
2. who is the sender
3. who is the audience
4. how is the message conveyed
5 what is the impact on political behaviour

Question 16

Advantages of the transmission model (5)

Answer 16

1. Interactivity
2. More political debate
3. More political participation
4. More information available
5. Direct communication

Question 17

Disadvantages to the transmission model (5)

Answer 17

1. Extremist views & conspiracies
2. Misinformation
3. Corrupt media
4. Little contrasting opinions
5. Too many sources

Question 18

Populism & the media (4)

Answer 18

Populist leaders are less likely to interact with the media.
But when interacting:
1. divert public opinion from sensitive issues
2. little response to mentions
3. reinforce echo chambers
4. little interaction to prevent party threats

Question 19

What are Echo Chambers?

Answer 19

The phenomenon by which ideas circulate inside a closed system, and users seek out only those sources of information that confirm or amplify their values.