West European Perspectives on Political Communication: Structures and Dynamics

Abstract

The article is shaped by two objectives. First, it reviews approaches and contributions by European scholars with records of continuous and cumulative research into political communication, identifying eight common features of their work. A core notion is that of a `political communication system', including its structure (focusing especially on relations between politicians and journalists), the role of media power, the external influences to which it responds in different societies and how it changes. Audience studies are pursued and normative assessments developed within this perspective as well. Second, a few priority areas for future attention are proposed that could lead to a philosophically grounded critical (but non-Marxist) theory of political communication.