Polish Communication Association Panel - (New) Media and Political Communication in Europe

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Previously, much of the scholarship on political communication has been devoted to the role of the media, perceived as either channel of communication (political advertising) or active participants (media coverage of political actors and events). Today, still a significant number of studies focuses on relations between traditional (print and electronic) media and political parties, especially in the election context. However, more and more attention is paid to the implementation and utilization of new technologies by political actors. Indeed, political actors are using a diverse online media outputs for not only providing information, but also improving their engagements with supporters, raising funds, or monitoring their political rivals’ activities.

Changes in media technologies have also increased opportunity structures for the dissemination of messages of political actors with a limited access to traditional media or those who have been contesting mainstream media. That fits perfectly a characteristics of populist political actors in many countries. Studies on populist political communication have never been more important not only in light of the current social, political and economic tumult, but also in light of recent populist backlashes against governments and the changing media environment in many European countries. Trans-European migration, immigration, and economic austerity are exploited by a range of populist political opportunists. In addition, some mainstream media organisations, facing increasing commercial competition, have pandered to populist reactionary political agendas, in certain instances being at the forefront of campaigns.

The goal of the panel is to bring together a range of scholars from several European countries able to draw a picture of contemporary trends in political communication in general, and populist political communication in particular. The panelists will present their empirical studies on: (1) the ways in which political parties in hybrid media systems use social media as mobilization platforms for political participation among its citizenry, (2) the news media depiction of the various political parties’ electoral proposals and of the political attitudes of protest, (3) amount of attention paid by the media to populist political parties, and (4) a relation between the politicians’ self-presentation on social media and their image created by the journalists. The panel will also provide an opportunity to discuss theoretical and methodological approaches toward populist political communication in the era of online media.

Sub Unit

• Sponsored Sessions

Chair

• Iwona Hofman, Marie-Curie SkÅ‚odowska U in Lublin

Individual Presentations

• Reaching-Out or Out-Reaching: Comparative Analysis of the Czech and Polish Parties’ Social Media Elections Strategies - Vaclav Stetka, Loughborough U; Pawel Surowiec, Bournemouth U

• Media Visibility and (New) Media Activity of Populist Political Actors in Poland - Agnieszka Magdalena Stepinska, Adam Mickiewicz University; Dorota Piontek, Adam Mickiewicz U; Agnieszka Hess, Jagiellonian U

• Crisis, Negativity and Elections Equal Populist Communication? - Susana Salgado, U of Lisbon

• Online Populism: Towards an Integrative Theoretical Framework - Sven Engesser, TU of Dresden

Respondent

• Frank Esser, U of Zurich