1. Definition of Communication:
Bogardus defined communication as “interaction in terms of a
stimulus or a gesture by one person which produces a response in
the form of a verbal or silent symbol by a second person’’ (cited on
Syams, N.W. 2009: 14)
As long as there is other people, man can not not communicating
(Even the silence of someone –or the state of being silent-- is a
form of communication)
Sender-Message-Receiver (noise, channel, feedback)
S-O-R-(C)
Symbolic interactionism
2. Definition of Politics:
Harold Lasswell "Politics is the process of who gets
what, when, and how.“
David Easton "A political system can be designated as those
interactions through which values are authoritatively allocated for
a society.“
Max Weber "A political association exists if ... the enforcement
of its order is carried out continually within a given territorial area
by the application and threat of physical force.”
Robert Dahl "A political system is any persistent pattern of
human relationships that involves ... power, rule, or authority."
3. Definition of Political communication:
Denton and Woodward (1990: 14)
Pure discussion about the allocation of public resources (revenuews), official
authority (who is given the power to make legal, legislative and executive
decision), and official sanctions (what the state rewards or punishes)
Emphasizing rhetoric, sidelining symbolic communication acts
Graber (1981) Political communication is political language which “comprises of
rhetoric as well as paralinguistic signs such as body language, and political acts
such as boycotts and protests” (cited on McNair 2003)
McNair (2003: 4)
Purposeful communication about politics
All forms of communication undertaken by politicians and other political
actors for the purpose of achieving specific objectives
Communication addressed to these actors by non-politicians such as voters
and newspaper columnists
Communication about these actors and their activities, as contained in news
reports, editorials, and other forms of media discussion of politics (p. 4)
4. Celebrity
What is it about celebrities that drives everyone
ga-ga? Besides an accident of genetics that
endows them with the ability to wiggle their
hips, sing off-key, get drunker than skunks, or
dance with the stars, what exactly is it that
celebrities bring to the table? Are they morally
and ethically superior to ordinary humans? Have
any of them replaced a big rig transmission or
invented a new way to prevent heartburn?
5. Celebrity
Schickel (1986) defined celebrity as ‘intimate strangers’ (Hughes-Freeland 2007:
p. 5).
This definition combines the physical and socio-economic distance between
celebrity and the general public and the psychological and emotional proximity
between the two (Hughes-Freeland 2007: p. 5).
The intimacy that comes from almost any aspect of the celebrity, according to
Franklin (1997) makes them perceived as “more newsworthy” than any reports with
more significant issues and impacts (p. 4).
Rojek (2001) categories celebrity into three types: 'ascribed‟ celebrity are those
who gained their fame through their lineage such as aristocrats; „achieved‟ celebrity
who obtained their fame through a proven talents and capabilities either through
competition or works, and „attributed‟ celebrity that is “based on the workings of
cultural intermediaries to look like „achieved celebrity‟ while being a constructed
representation of it” (pp: 17–20). Celebrities that developed their fame through
widely published scandals or controversies are the extreme example of 'attributed'
celebrity. They usually obtained less social respect eventhough secured immense
gossip and popular attention “and are normally short lived” (Hughes-Freeland 2007:
p. 5).
6. Celebrity
Daniel J. Boorstin in his seminal study The Image suggested that the celebrity
is a person who is “well-known for his well-knownness” often paraphrased
as “a celebrity is someone famous for being famous.”
The celebrity is the “human pseudo-event” (anything about him/her ‘must’ be
newsworthy)
The differences between celebrity and hero:
Boorstin
1) “The hero was distinguished by his achievement; the celebrity by his image
or trademark.”
2) “The hero created himself; the celebrity is created by the media.”
3) “The hero was a big man; the celebrity is a big name.”
Politicians, the ones who should be hero, are often too busy to be
celebrity and forget to act as heroes.
7. Celebrification
Joshua Gamson „the celebrification process‟ “the acquisition by
political leaders of the traits, conversational codes and presentational
skills developed by Hollywood.”
The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism Celebrification is a
term to describe “a phenomenon seemingly rampant in the Philippine
political landscape during elections –celebrities help politicians to be
more popular, celebrities endorse candidates during election
campaigning, and celebrities themselves become politicians wanting to
serve the country” (PCIJ 2007)
8. Celebrification:
A Deliberate Mediated
Planned
Process Using news-worthy /
camera-friendly activities
Bombastic, hyperbolic, sy
mbolic
has a ‘vote-gathering’
power
Media Darling
9. Media Darling:
Concepts
Those who gained continual positive
coverage by the media
11. In order to be celebrity (or to gain
enough fame to be recognized by
the people), some political actors
do the “Self-imaging” deliberate
action(s) aimed at projecting good
and/or beneficial self-image
12. Why do we need to
creat and maintain
positive self-image?
1. Communication is S-O-R
2. Man reacts based on what they perceived as the „right‟
thing (right thing to do, right thing to fulfill his/her
interest, etc)
3. Decision-making often influenced by past experiences
and individual as well as communal values
These means that cultivating a good image is important and
strategic
13. Factors taken into
account in developing
positive self-image
1. The projected (intended) image
2. Community/target‟s values
Be aware of the content (message) to be delivered
and the way of delivering it
14. Ways (Strategies) in
developing positive self-
image
1. Inline with community‟s values
2. Less likely to trigger conflict
3. Media-friendly message and package
15. How to measure self-imaging?
Congruency between the
actor’s intented image and
image built in people mind
(Positive) top of mind
16. Public Sphere
German sociologist, Jürgen Habermas “By the
public sphere we mean first of all a realm of our
social life in which something approaching public
opinion can be formed.... Citizens behave as a public
body when they confer in an unrestricted fashion –
that is, within the guarantee of freedom of assembly
and association and the freedom to express and
publish their opinions” (cited in Pusey 1978: 89)
17. Public Sphere
Gripsund “a set of institutions representing a sort of ‘buffer zone’ between the
state/king and private sphere, to protect them from arbitrary decisions that
interfered with what they considered private activities in an irrational way” (1992:
89).
The press in particular ‘was to function as an instrument or a forum
for the enlightened, rational, critical, and unbiased public discussion
of what the common interests were in matters of culture and
politics’ (ibid.)
Josef Ernst “distinctive discursive space” within which “individuals are
combined so as to be able to assume the role of a politically powerful force”
(1988: 47).
McNair (2003: 21) “the bourgeois realm of politics” (Ernst 1988: 47) which has
gradually expanded from its elitist beginnings to include absolute majorities
of the population in modern democratic societies.
18. Public Sphere
McNair The public sphere, as can be seen, comprises in essence the
communicative institutions of a society, through which facts and
opinions circulate and by means of which a common stock of
knowledge is built up as the basis for collective political action (2003:
20-21)
Hence, the mass media, which since the eighteenth century have
evolved into the main source and focus of a society’s shared
experience played a significant role in the public sphere (McNair:
2003: 20-21).
19. Public Opinion
Media became the most influential actor in influencing public
opinion.
According to Habermas, the first use of the term ‘public
opinion’ was documented in 1781, referring to “the critical
reflection of a [bourgeois] public competent to form its own
judgments” (Pusey 1978: 90).
20. Generally, the media is the most influential actor in
determining public opinion. Other actors are pressure
groups
Pressure groups
Pressure groups “have been credited with having
developed new styles of political activism, the
so-called ‘new politics’ – popular
protests, marches, sit-ins, direct action, and so on –
that has proved to be attractive to a growing body of
young people disillusioned by ‘conventional’ politics”*.
Conventional politics: politics through parliament by means of political
parties
21. Group Interests
Pressure groups and political parties
“Pressure groups and political parties have much in
common. They are the two main bodies through
which the public’s views and interests are channelled
to government. As such, both of them carry out
representation, facilitate political participation and
contribute to the policy process. However, on the
face of it, groups and parties are very different
beasts”
(http://www.palgrave.com/PDFs/0230201733.pdf).
22. Group Interests
A pressure group is an organized group of people which aims to influence
the policies or actions of government.
Pressure groups are defined by three key features:
1) They seek to exert influence from outside, rather than to win or
exercise government power. Pressure groups do not make policy
decisions, but rather try to influence those who do (the policy-makers). In
that sense, they are ‘external’ to government.
2) They typically have a narrow issue focus. In some cases, they may focus
on a single issue (for instance opposing a planned road development).
3) Their members are united by either a shared belief in a particular
cause or a common set of interests. People with different ideological and
party preferences may thus work happily together as members of the
same pressure group. (http://www.palgrave.com/PDFs/0230201733.pdf).
24. The Flow of Political Interests and Influence in
Democratic Landscape (Achmad Supardi)
Interest Groups ------------------Spheres of Influence-----------Target of Influence
Media
Pressure Groups Structural Political
(NGOs, Associations) Representatives (Parliament)
Lobby groups Media Citizens
Political Party Political Party
Politicians
Feedback (Input Feedback
and Vote) (Input)
25. Media and Public Discourse
The scheme above indicated that media hold two positions:
1) Media as one of interest groups
2) Media as public sphere of discourse
Media as ‘disseminators’ as well as ‘directors’
** Media Ideology determines the choices of topics and
editorial policy political stance
** Media Ownership the owner’s interest and future goals
Public Discourse Anti-Trust Regulations
26. Democracy and Media
Democracy
A political system which enacted and
implemented by the people and directed to serve
the people.
Media crucial in a democratic society because
democracy presumes ‘an open state in
which people are allowed to participate in
decision-making, and are given access to
the media, and other information
networks through which advocacy occurs’
(Hauser cited in Cooper 1991: 42).
27. Democracy provides equal chance for anyone
to participate (read: to compete) in the
process.
Hence, the possibility and opportunity for
people to fulfill their needs and interest
are not equal.
28. The Failure of Democratic System
1. The failure of democratic system
2. The absent of choices
3. Manufacture of consent
4. Pseudo events
5. The limitation of objectivity
29. The Failure of Democratic System
Democracy people decide
Who are ‘the people’ the majority as
reflected through the result of General
Elections
How if the majority of eligible voters do not
use their right to vote? Are the ones chosen
in General Election reflected the choice of
majority of the people?
30. The Absent of Choices
A further limitation on democracy is the absence of genuine choice or pluralism.
Many parties, however they are hardly different
“ Even in Britain, where the Labour and Conservative parties have traditionally
been distinct ideologically, the 1990s saw a coming together of agendas and q
policies on many social, economic and foreign policy matters. In the 1997 general
election, ‘New Labour’ unashamedly adopted many of what had previously been
viewed (including by most members of the Labour Party itself) as right-wing
Conservative policies, such as privatisation of the air traffic control system. In
doing so, New Labour proclaimed itself at the ‘radical centre’ of British politics,
emulating the Clinton administration’s 1996 re-election strategy of ideological
‘triangulation’ (Morris,1997 cited in McNair 2003: 24).
Triangulation in the US, like Labour’s radical centrism, meant taking what was
popular and common-sensical from the freemarket right (such as the reduction of
‘big government’), while adhering to the core social democratic values of social
justice and equality of opportunity.
31. Manufacture of Consent
Despite the failure of democratic system and the absent of
choices, there are also media-related downfall, namely the
manufacture of consent (Walter Lippmann1954: 245).
Remember: The legitimacy of liberal democratic government
is founded on the consent of the governed (the people).
The problem is that the consent of the governed is not the
original consent of the people, but the manufactured one.
Who manufacture people’s consent?
Mostly Media
32. Manufacture of Consent
Politicians combined the techniques of
social psychology with the immense reach of
mass media.
Persuasion or Manipulation?
To inform or to direct?
33. Pseudo-Events
Pseudo-events (coined by Daniel Boorstin in 1962) the increasing
tendency of news and journalistic media to cover ‘unreal’, unauthentic
‘happenings’.
(Unauthentic events which deliberately created/managed in
order to convey a certain message and/or to reach a specific
goal)
This tendency, he argued, was associated with the rise from the
nineteenth century onwards of the popular press and a correspondingly
dramatic increase in the demand for news material. ‘As the costs of
printing and then broadcasting increased, it became financially necessary
to keep the presses always at work and the TV screen always busy.
Pressures towards the making of pseudo-events became ever stronger.
Newsgathering turned into news making’ (Boorstin 1962: 14).
34. Pseudo-Events
“In a democratic society . . . freedom of speech and of the press
and of broadcasting includes freedom to create pseudo-events.
Competing politicians, newsmen and news media contest in this
creation. They vie with each other in offering
attractive, ‘informative’ accounts and images of the world. They are
free to speculate on the facts, to bring new facts into being, to
demand answers to their own contrived questions. Our ‘free
market of ideas’ is a place where people are confronted by
competing pseudo-events and are allowed to judge among them.
When we speak of ‘informing’ the people this is what we really
mean.” (Boorstin 1962: 35)
Triggers:
1) The lazyness of reporters Talking news
2) The realm of media capitalism
35. The Limitation of Objectivity
A further criticism of the media’s democratic role focuses on the
professional journalistic ethic of objectivity. This ethic developed
with the mass media in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, and has been assailed ever since as fundamentally
unattainable (McNair 2003).
For a variety of reasons, it is argued, the media’s political reportage
is biased and flawed – subjective, as opposed to objective;
partisan, rather than impartial. As Lippmann put it in 1922, “every
newspaper when it reaches the reader is the
result of a whole series of selections as to what items shall be
printed, in what position they shall be printed, how much space
each shall occupy, what emphasis each should have. There are no
objective standards here. There are conventions” (1954: 354).
36. The Flow of Political Interests and Influence in
Democratic Landscape (Achmad Supardi)
Interest Groups ------------------Spheres of Influence-----------Target of Influence
Media
Pressure Groups Structural Political
(NGOs, Associations) Representatives (Parliament)
Lobby groups Media Citizens
Political Party Political Party
Politicians
Feedback (Input Feedback
and Vote) (Input)
38. What trigger the emergence of individual
broadcasters?
What are the impacts of individual
broadcasters for political campaign?
What are the effects of individual
broadcasters for government/policy-makers,
media, industry, and interest groups?
39. The Failure of Democratic System
Colin Seymour-Ure Television has become an
‘integral part of the environment within which
political life takes place’ (1989: 308)
As a really powerful actor, can media do their role in
a balance to the rights allocated to them in a
democratic society? The need to observe both
‘the democracy” and “the media”
