Political Communication & Media Theories: Levels, Models, and Impact

Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Group, Mass

Four levels of communication

Sender, Message, Channel, Receiver, Noise

Components of the transmission model

Inform, Educate, Entertain, Mobilize, Watchdog

Functions of media

Decentralization, interactivity, user-generated content

How the Internet changes media

Direct democracy, Liberal democracy, Deliberative democracy

Three normative theories of democracy

Informs citizens, enables participation, holds leaders accountable

Role of political communication

Surveys, Experiments, Content Analysis

Basic research methods in political communication

Because two variables can be related without one causing the other

Correlation vs causation

Treatment/control groups, randomization

Key elements of experiments

Comparing two versions to test effects; pros: clarity, cons: artificial

A/B testing

It ensures representativeness

Importance of random sampling in surveys

traditional media- newspapers, magazines

broadcast media- radio, television

digital media- online sites, social media, podcasts

Main types of media outlets

First Amendment

Legal foundation of press freedom

Areas lacking local news; caused by revenue decline; solutions = nonprofits, collaborations

News deserts

Systematic favoritism in news coverage

Media bias

Transparency, media literacy

Solutions to media bias

Political, Gender, Race

Types of bias

Minorities are overrepresented as criminals

Dixon & Williams (2015) findings

Declining trust; partisan gap (Fox News trusted by conservatives)

Trend of media trust in the U.S.

Belief that neutral media is biased against one's side

Hostile media perception

Media tells people what to think about

Agenda setting

Second-level, third-level, intermedia, agenda building

Variants of agenda setting

Media affects evaluation criteria

Priming

How issues are presented affects interpretation

Framing

Media → Opinion leaders → Public

Two-step flow model

Social media influencers

Modern opinion leaders

Networked influence beyond two steps

Multi-step flow model

Direct influence via algorithms; still debated

One-step flow model

A multilevel, global phenomenon that influences political outcomes

Political communication

Channels of information transmission

Media

The process by which society and politics are shaped by media logic

Mediatization

Free/fair elections, equality, civil liberties, rule of law, participation, accountability, transparency, pluralism

Eight core characteristics of democracy

Low turnout, polarization, inequality

Democracy deficits in the U.S.

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