Impersonal Personalization: Government Communication in an Emotional Media Landscape

• In Event: ICA Interactive Paper/Poster Session II
  In Interactive Paper Session: Political Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

Personal and emotional stories are vital formats for government critique, booming in current, hybrid media landscapes. The present paper analyzes the strategies of government agencies faced with this type of personalized criticism. Departing from theories of personalization in politics and the media, the article brings attention to the institutional constraints that limits available government communication repertoires. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, it argues that the complex and often contradicting communication tasks of governments has been neglected in the literature on the media strategies of government executives. It analyzes how and why government communication, in spite of extensive media management resources, personalization processes and media-oriented politicians, end up giving repetitive, empty, symbolic media statements (impersonal personalization).

Authors

• Kjersti Thorbjornsrud, Institute for Social Research

• Tine Ustad Figenschou, Oslo and Akershus U College