Skip to main content

Political Communication

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:

Synonyms

Political discourse; Elite influence on public opinion; Political persuasion and mobilization

Introduction

Political communication is the dissemination of political information among and between political elites, mass media organizations, and the public. The study of political communication emerged as an important subfield of both political science and communication in the twentieth century, with research focused on the influence of the news media on public opinion and voting behavior; the theories of agenda-setting, framing, and priming effects; the tactics and efficacy of political campaigns; the effects of negative political advertising; the discourse and deliberation among the mass public; the speeches and rhetoric of office holders; the interactive relationships between elite and mass opinion; the influence of commercial and political pressures on the content of news media; the relationship between partisan polarization and partisan media; and the advent of digital...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

References

  • Abramowitz AI, Saunders KL (2008) Is polarization a myth?”. J Polit 70(2):542–555

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ansolabehere S, Iyengar S (1995) Going negative: how political advertisements shrink & polarize the electorate. Free Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Arceneaux K, Johnson M (2013) Changing minds or changing channels?: partisan news in an Age of choice. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Barberá P (2014) Birds of the Same Feather Tweet Together. Bayesian Ideal Point Estimation Using Twitter Data. Political Analysis 23(1):76–91

    Google Scholar 

  • Barker DC (2002) Rushed to judgment: talk radio, persuasion, and american political behavior. Columbia University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Baum MA (2002) Sex, lies, and War: how soft news brings foreign policy to the inattentive public. Am Polit Sci Rev 96(1):91–109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baum MA (2003) Soft news and political knowledge: evidence of absence or absence of evidence?”. Polit Commun 20(2):173–190

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baum MA, Groeling T (2008) New media and the polarization of american political discourse. Polit Commun 25(4):345–365

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baumgartner J, Morris JS (2006) The daily show effect candidate evaluations, efficacy, and American youth. American Politics Research 34(3):341–67

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett LW (1990) Toward a theory of press-state relations in the United States. J Commun 40(2):103–127

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett LW, Iyengar S (2008) A new era of minimal effects? the changing foundations of political communication. J Commun 58(4):707–731

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berelson BR, Lazarsfeld PF, McPhee WN (1954) Voting: a study of opinion formation in a presidential campaign. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Berry JM, Sobieraj S (2013) The outrage industry political opinion media and the new incivility. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Best SJ, Krueger BS (2005) Analyzing the representativeness of internet political participation. Polit Behav 27(2):183–216

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bode L, Hanna A, Yang J, Shah DV (2015) Candidate networks, citizen clusters, and political expression strategic hashtag use in the 2010 midterms. Ann Am Acad Polit Soc Sci 659(1):149–165

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bond RM et al (2012) A 61-million-person experiment in social influence and political mobilization. Nature 489(7415):295–298

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borah P (2013) Interactions of news frames and incivility in the political blogosphere: examining perceptual outcomes. Polit Commun 30(3):456–473

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brader T (2006) Campaigning for hearts and minds: How emotional appeals in political Ads work. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks DJ, Geer JG (2007) Beyond negativity: the effects of incivility on the electorate. Am J Polit Sci 51(1):1–16

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell A, Converse PE, Miller W, Stokes D (1960) The American voter. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Ceaser JW, Thurow GE, Tulis J, Bessette JM (1981) The rise of the rhetorical presidency. Pres Stud Q 11(2):158–171

    Google Scholar 

  • Coe K, Kenski K, Rains SA (2014) Online and uncivil? patterns and determinants of incivility in newspaper website comments. J Commun 64:658

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Colleoni E, Rozza A, Arvidsson A (2014) Echo chamber or public sphere? predicting political orientation and measuring political homophily in twitter using big data. J Commun 64(2):317–332

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Converse PE (1964) The nature of beliefs systems in mass publics. In: Apter DE (ed) Ideology and discontent. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor

    Google Scholar 

  • Cook TE (2005) Governing with the news: the news media as a political institution. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • D’Alessio D, Allen M (2000) Media bias in presidential elections: a meta-analysis. J Commun 50(4):133–156

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dahlberg L (2001) The internet and democratic discourse: exploring the prospects of online deliberative forums extending the public sphere. Inf Commun Soc 4(4):615–633

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dahlgren P (2006) The internet, public spheres, and political communication. Polit Commun 22(2):147–162

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeFleur ML, Ball-Rokeach S (1982) Theories of mass communication. Longman, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Delli Carpini MX, Keeter S (1996) What Americans know about politics and why It matters. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Dewey J (1954 [1927]) The public and its problems, 1st edn. Swallow Press, Athens

    Google Scholar 

  • Dilliplane S (2011) All the news you want to hear: the impact of partisan news exposure on political participation. Public Opin Q 75(2):287–316

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Downs A (1957) An economic theory of democracy. Harper and Row, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Druckman JN (2004) Priming the vote: campaign effects in a U.S. Senate election. Polit Psychol 25(4):577–594

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Entman RM (1993) Framing: toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. J Commun 43(4):51–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eveland WP Jr, Shah D (2003) The impact of individual and interpersonal factors on perceived news media bias. Polit Psychol 24(1):101–117

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Festinger L (1985) A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford University Press, Stanford

    Google Scholar 

  • Fiorina MP (1981) Retrospective voting in american elections. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Fiorina MP, Abrams SJ, Pope JC (2010) Culture War? the myth of polarized America, 3rd edn. Longman, Boston, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Fridkin KL, Kenney PJ (2008) The dimensions of negative messages. Am Polit Res 36(5):694–723

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garrett KR, Carnahan D, Lynch EK (2013) A turn toward avoidance? selective exposure to online political information, 2004–2008. Polit Behav 35(1):113–134

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gastil J (2000) Is face-to-face citizen deliberation a luxury or a necessity?”. Polit Commun 17(4):357–361

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geer JG (2006) In defense of negativity: attack ads in presidential campaigns. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gentzkow M, Shapiro JM (2011) Ideological segregation online and offline. Q J Econ 126(4):1799–1839

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gerber AS, Green DP (2000) The effects of canvassing, telephone calls, and direct mail on voter turnout: a field experiment. Am Polit Sci Rev 94(3):653–663

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gervais BT (2014) Following the news? reception of uncivil partisan media and the use of incivility in political expression. Polit Commun 31(4):564–583

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gil de Zuniga H, Jung N, Valenzuela S (2012) Social media use for news and Individuals’ social capital, civic engagement and political participation. J Comput-Mediat Commun 17:319–336

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giner-Sorolla R, Chaiken S (1994) The causes of media judgements. J Exp Soc Psychol 30:165–180

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Golbeck J, Grimes JM, Rogers A (2010) Twitter use by the U.S. Congress. J Am Soc Inf Sci Technol 61(8):1612–1621

    Google Scholar 

  • Green DP, Gerber AS (2008) Get out the vote, second edition: how to increase voter turnout, 2nd edn. Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Gutmann A, Thompson DF (1996) Democracy and disagreement. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas J (1990) Moral consciousness and communicative action. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Hart RP (1987) The sound of leadership: presidential communication in the modern age. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Hart RP (1999) Seducing america: how television charms the modern voter. Sage, Thousand Oaks

    Google Scholar 

  • Hemphill L, Otterbacher J, Shapiro M (2013) What’s Congress doing on twitter?” In: Proceedings of the 2013 conference on computer supported cooperative work, CSCW’13. ACM, New York, pp 877–886. 10.1145/2441776.2441876. 18 Feb 2014

    Google Scholar 

  • Hersh ED (2015) Hacking the electorate: how campaigns perceive voters. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hillygus SD, Jackman S (2003) Voter decision making in election 2000: campaign effects, partisan activation, and the Clinton legacy. Am J Polit Sci 47(4):583–596

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hindman M (2008) The myth of digital democracy. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Hopkins D, Ladd JM (2014) The consequences of broader media choice: evidence from the expansion of Fox news. Q J Polit Sci 9(1):115–135

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huckfeldt RR, Sprague J (2006) Citizens, politics and social communication: information and influence in an election campaign. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Iyengar S, Hahn KS (2009) Red media, blue media: evidence of ideological selectivity in media use. J Commun 59(1):19–39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iyengar S, Kinder DR (1989) News that matters: television and american opinion. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Jamieson KH, Cappella JN (2009) Echo chamber: rush Limbaugh and the conservative media establishment. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Katz E (1957) The two-step flow of communication: an up-to-date report on an hypothesis. Publ Opin Q 21(1):61–78

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kernell S (2006) Going public: new strategies of presidential leadership, 4th edn. CQ Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Key VO (1966) The responsible electorate: rationality in presidential voting, 1936-1960. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Klapper JT (1948) Mass media and the engineering of consent. Am Sch 17(4):419–429

    Google Scholar 

  • Klapper JT (1960) Effects of mass communication, 1st edn. Free Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Krosnick JA (1990) Government policy and citizen passion: a study of issue publics in contemporary America. Polit Behav 12:59–92

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ladd JM (2012) Why Americans hate the media and how it matters, 1st edn. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Larsson AO, Moe H (2012) Studying political microblogging: twitter users in the 2010 Swedish election campaign. New Media Soc 14(5):729–747

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lassen DS, Brown AR (2011) Twitter the electoral connection?”. Soc Sci Comput Rev 29(4):419–436

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lau RR, Lee S, Heldman C, Babbitt P (1999) The effects of negative political advertisements: a meta-analytic assessment. Am Polit Sci Rev 93(4):851–875

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lawless JL (2012) Twitter and facebook: new ways to send the same Old message? In: Fox RL, Ramos J (eds) iPolitics. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp 206–232

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawrence E, Sides J, Farrell H (2010) Self-segregation or deliberation? blog readership, participation, and polarization in American politics. Perspect Polit 8(01):141–157

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Layman GC, Carsey TM (2002) Party polarization and ‘conflict extension’ in the American electorate. Am J Polit Sci 46(4):786–802

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lazarsfeld PF, Berelson BR, Gaudet H (1944) The people’s choice: how the voter makes up his mind in a presidential campaign. Duell, Sloan and Pearce, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Lippmann W 1997 [1922] Public opinion. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lupia A (1994) Shortcuts versus encyclopedias: information and voting behavior in California insurance reform elections. Am Polit Sci Rev 88(1):63–76

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luskin RC, Fishkin JS, Jowell R (2002) Considered opinions: deliberative polling in Britain. Br J Polit Sci 32(3):455–487

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mansbridge J (1999) On the idea that participation makes better citizens. In: Elkin SL, Soltan KE (eds) Citizen competence and democratic institutions. Penn. State University Press, University Park

    Google Scholar 

  • McCombs ME, Shaw DL (1972) The agenda-setting function of mass media. Public Opin Q 36(2):176–187

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mossberger K, Tolbert CJ, Stansbury M (2003) Virtual inequality: beyond the digital divide. Georgetown University Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Mutz DC (2006) Hearing the other side: deliberative versus participatory democracy, 1st edn. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mutz D (2007) Effects of ‘in-your-Face’ television discourse on perceptions of a legitimate opposition. Am Polit Sci Rev 101:621–635

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mutz DC (2011) Population-based survey experiments. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mutz DC (2015) In-your-face politics: the consequences of uncivil media. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mutz DC, Reeves B (2005) The New videomalaise: effects of televised incivility. Am Polit Sci Rev 99(1):1–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mutz DC, Young L (2011) Communication and public opinion plus Ça change?”. Public Opin Q 75(5):1018–1044

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nielsen RK (2012) Ground wars: personalized communication in political campaigns. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Norris P (2001) Digital divide: civic engagement, information poverty, and the internet worldwide. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Page BJ, Shapiro RY (1992) The Rational Public: Fifty Years of Trends in Americans’ Policy Preferences. 1st ed. University Of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Papacharissi Z (2004) Democracy online: civility, politeness, and the democratic potential of online political discussion groups. New Media Soc 6(2):259–283. doi:10.1177/1461444804041444

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patterson TE (1994) Out of order: an incisive and boldly original critique of the news Media’s domination of America’s political process. Vintage, New York, Reprint edition

    Google Scholar 

  • Popkin SL (1991) The reasoning voter: communication and persuasion in presidential campaigns. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Prior M (2007) Post-broadcast democracy: how media choice increases inequality in political involvement and polarizes elections, 1st edn. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Prior M (2009) Improving media effects research through better measurement of news exposure. J Polit 71(03):893–908

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prior M (2013) Media and political polarization. Ann Rev Polit Sci 16(1):101, null

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Putnam RD (2001) Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of American community, 1st edn. Simon & Schuster, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Ridout TN, Franz MM (2011) The persuasive power of campaign advertising. Temple University Press, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Ridout TN, Searles K (2011) It’s my campaign I’ll Cry if I want to: how and when campaigns use emotional appeals. Polit Psychol 32(3):439–458

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson MJ (1975) American political legitimacy in an Era of electronic journalism: reflections on the evening news. In: Douglass C, Richard A (eds) Television as a social force: new approaches to TV criticism. Praeger, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson P (2005) The CNN effect: the myth of news, foreign policy and intervention. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Shah DV, Cho J, Eveland WP Jr, Kwak N (2005) Information and expression in a digital age: modeling internet effects on civic participation. Commun Res 32(5):531–565

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shoemaker PJ, Vos T (2009) Gatekeeping theory. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Sides J, Vavreck L (2013) The gamble: choice and chance in the 2012 presidential election. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith G, Searles K (2014) Who Let the (attack) dogs Out? New evidence for partisan media effects. Public Opin Q 78:71, nft082

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sniderman PM, Brody RA, Tetlock PE (1993) Reasoning and choice: explorations in political psychology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Sobieraj S, Berry J (2011) From incivility to outrage: political discourse in blogs, talk radio, and cable news. Polit Commun 28(1):19–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stroud NJ (2011) Niche News: The Politics of News Choice. New York: Oxford University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Sunstein CR (2009) Republic.com 2.0. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Tulis J (1987) The rhetorical presidency. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Vavreck L (2009) The message matters: the economy and presidential campaigns. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Vergeer M, Hermans L (2013) Campaigning on twitter: microblogging and online social networking as campaign tools in the 2010 general elections in the Netherlands. J Comput-Mediat Commun 18(4):399–419

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Warren ME (1996) Deliberative democracy and authority. Am Polit Sci Rev 90(1):46–60

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams BA, Delli Carpini MX (2011) After broadcast news: media regimes, democracy, and the new information environment. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson JL (2011) Deliberation, democracy, and the rule of reason in Aristotle’s ‘politics’. Am Polit Sci Rev 105(2):259–274

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young D (2004) Late-night comedy in election 2000: its influence on candidate trait ratings and the moderating effects of political knowledge and partisanship. J Broadcast Electron Media 48(1):1–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zaller J (1992) The nature and origins of mass opinion. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Zúñiga, Gil de Homero, Veenstra A, Vraga A, Shah D (2010) Digital democracy: reimagining pathways to political participation. J Inform Technol Polit 7(1):36–51

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bryan T. Gervais .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Cite this entry

Gervais, B.T. (2016). Political Communication. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2531-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2531-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics