Consulting the Consultants: Methodological Pluralism and Pragmatism in Studying Communications Intermediaries

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Today it is assumed that a wide range of professional communication consultants shape, manage and even create political issues and decisions in targeted media contexts. Yet as communication researchers, we lack an explicit set of tools and techniques for accessing, engaging with, and filtering knowledge from these consultants for analysis. Despite the explosion of studies in our field on the role of national and international consultants as brokers of political knowledge, vastly expanding the state of knowledge and theory about the function of such intermediaries in the political process, we lack resources that explain how these authors identified, tracked, gathered data from and assessed information provided by these intermediaries.
Drawing on research experience with consultants in political, technology, media, and management realms, this panel offers a range of methodological opportunities and challenges in the process of studying consultants. Panelists will reflect on methods to get beyond the rehearsed narratives, curated output, and strategic self-presentation of highly media-aware professional communications experts to gain insight into the intermediation of politics and governance in national and transnational contexts.
The aim of the panel is to describe possible directions for future research, driving methodological innovation while assessing the strengths of various data collection techniques.

Sub Unit

• Political Communication

Chair

• Melissa Aronczyk, Rutgers University

Individual Presentations

• Interviewing Communication Consultants: Tackling the Performances of Image Professionals - Anu Marjaana Kantola, University of Helsinki

• Navigating Difficult Terrain: Revealing the Hidden Experiences of U.S. Women Working in Political Technology, 2004-2016 - Daniel Kreiss, U of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Holly Roberts, U of North Carolina

• Seeking out the “Hidden Persuaders”: Lessons From Fieldwork with the Transnational Promotional Class - Melissa Aronczyk, Rutgers University

• Access Denied Does Not Mean Game Over. Potentials and Risks of Researching Information Adverse Environments - Sarah Anne Ganter, School of Communication, Simon Fraser U

Respondent

• Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism