POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends… “ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Political communication(s) is a subfield of communication and political science that is concerned with how information spreads and influences politics and policy makers, the news media and citizens. Since the advent of the World Wide Web, the amount of data to analyze has exploded, and researchers are shifting to computational methods to study the dynamics of political communication. In recent years, machine learning, natural language processing, and network analysis have become key tools in the subfield. It deals with the production, dissemination, procession and effects of information, both through mass media and interpersonally, within a political context. This includes the study of the media, the analysis of speeches by politicians and those that are trying to influence the political process, and formal and informal conversations among members of the public, among other aspects. The media acts as bridge between government and public. Political communication can be defined as the connection concerning politics and citizens and the interaction modes that connect these groups to each other. Whether the relationship is formed by the modes of persuasion, Pathos, Ethos or Logos.

The study and practice of political communication focuses on the ways and means of expression of a political nature. Robert E. Denton and Gary C. Woodward, two important contributors to the field, in Political Communication in America characterize it as the ways and intentions of message senders to influence the political environment. This includes public discussion (e.g. political speeches, news media coverage, and ordinary citizens' talk) that considers who has authority to sanction, the allocation of public resources, who has authority to make decision, as well as social meaning like what makes someone American. In their words "the crucial factor that makes communication 'political' is not the source of a message, but its content and purpose.".

Swanson and Dan Nimmo, also key members of this sub-discipline, define political communication as "the strategic use of communication to influence public knowledge, beliefs, and action on political matters."  They emphasize the strategic nature of political communication, highlighting the role of persuasion in political discourse. Brian McNair provides a similar definition when he writes that political communication is "purposeful communication about politics." For McNair this means that this not only covers verbal or written statements, but also visual representations such as dress, make-up, hairstyle or logo design. With other words, it also includes all those aspects that develop a "political identity" or "image". Reflecting on the relationship between political communication and contemporary agenda-building, Vian Bakir defines Strategic Political Communication (SPC) as comprising 'political communication that is manipulative in intent, that utilises social scientific techniques and heuristic devices to understand human motivation, human behavior and the media environment, to inform effectively what should be communicated – encompassing its detail and overall direction – and what should be withheld, with the aim of taking into account and influencing public opinion, and creating strategic alliances and an enabling environment for government policies – both at home and abroad'.

There are many academic departments and schools around the world that specialize in political communication. These programs are housed in programs of communication, journalism and political science, among others. The study of political communication is clearly interdisciplinary.

Rulers and governed have always had the need to relate to each other. The first because they need the support of citizens to develop their political ideas and make them tangible, the latter because they want to let their politicians know what society needs and what they expect from them. In this sense, the message transmitted by these political actors is what legitimizes them or not as such, hence the importance of Political Communication.

"The Prince" by Machiavelli, written at the beginning of the 16th century, was one of the first treatises on political theory in History in which its author describes the way in which a ruler must make use of his power. Machiavelli points out that politics is an artificial matter created by human talent and comes to justify the existence of autocratic leaders in their ability to understand the game of political power.

Already in the eighteenth century, Louis XVI of France became one of the precursors of the image of the politician, and later Napoleon showed his interest in controlling the opinion of the masses with the creation of an office of Public Opinion. This institution is another example of how politicians have used the instruments available to them in their time to transmit their messages in a successful manner.

However, it is from the second half of the twentieth century when the Political Communication is professionalized. In the 1920s the concept of propaganda appeared with the so-called Creel committee that, under the control of journalist George Creel, wanted to influence public opinion so that it supported the participation of the United States in World War I with the famous poster " I want you for US army. "

In the following years the political communication was evolving with the use of new communication techniques with very specific purposes depending on which political leaders governed in each moment. But a good technique of political communication does not have to translate into good political management or good political action, as happened in the case of Hitler.

With the development of technologies, communication and marketing strategies are much more complex than they were then, and a good Political Communication and a good marketing strategy are usually synonymous with electoral success. For this reason, political parties allocate a larger budget for campaigns and make better use of social networks, one of the most used instruments to get their messages to society in a closer way.

The Political Communication is a discipline for which more and more companies are looking for a qualified staff and professionals in the digital field, where according to experts is their present and their future.

The communication is composed of eight key elements:

Emitter and receiver.

In the first place we find the two protagonists of the communicative process: sender and receiver. In politics, an adequate definition of both is important for any communicative situation. In the case of the issuer, it is very important to differentiate the messages that are made from the organization, those that are carried out in a personal capacity by the members of the same and those that are made based on a public position. It is important that in any case there is a coherence with respect to the political project, but many communicative errors come from communicating each message from an inappropriate position as an issuer, such as announcing government measures from a political meeting. The definition of the receiver is equally or more important, because it greatly determines our ability to adapt the message, codes and channels to their specific circumstances.

Objectives and expectations.

Two other elements related to sender and receiver are, respectively, the objectives and expectations. The effectiveness of a communication depends on an accurate visualization of the objective that pursues the same, at the same time as it manages to detect and adapt to the expectations of the receiver. There is no worse way to communicate than to do it without intention, without a reason, because it is an energy and time wasted and, most likely, a source of communicative errors. In the same way, when the receiver feels that his expectations are being frustrated, the communication is evaded or cut off, making it completely ineffective.

The message and the channel.

Two more elements are the message and the channel through which it is transmitted. Both are intimately related, because the channel influences the message in the same way as the message to the channel. The variety of linguistic, graphic, spatial and other codes that make up the message is so broad that it would require separate treatment. The important thing is that these resources are adapted to both the receiver's expectations and the issuer's objectives. The adequacy of the sender to the channel is important because they make one type or another of messages more effective. Each channel requires its own learning in the use of its own resources. For example, that a politician is a very good columnist does not mean that he defends himself in a radio debate.

The answer and the context.

Other relevant elements are the response and the context. The answer, in politics, is traditionally given in the form of a poll or a vote. But the technological revolution that is taking place in the media is opening up many channels of interaction with the public that the parties can take advantage of if they know how to use them properly. The context is everything that surrounds each communicative situation. It is one of the aspects that most have tried to control in politics, both for security issues and for an important aversion to improvisation. The biggest communicative challenge of many politicians is to improve their ability to respond effectively to dynamic or changing contexts.

Good communicative management implies taking responsibility for each of the elements in each situation.

Focusing on the message without taking good care of who the sender is, choosing an inappropriate channel according to the recipient or not integrating the objectives well with expectations are examples of misuses in political communication.

Written:

Omar Colmenares Trujillo