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

Four levels of communication

Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Group, Mass

Components of the transmission model

Sender, Message, Channel, Receiver, Noise

Political communication

A multilevel, global phenomenon that influences political outcomes

Media

Channels of information transmission

Mediatization

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

Functions of media

Inform, Educate, Entertain, Mobilize, Watchdog

How the Internet changes media

Decentralization, interactivity, user-generated content

Eight core characteristics of democracy

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

Democracy deficits in the U.S.

Low turnout, polarization, inequality

Three normative theories of democracy

Direct democracy, Liberal democracy, Deliberative democracy

Role of political communication

Informs citizens, enables participation, holds leaders accountable

Basic research methods in political communication

Surveys, Experiments, Content Analysis

Correlation vs causation

Because two variables can be related without one causing the other

Key elements of experiments

Treatment/control groups, randomization

A/B testing

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

Importance of random sampling in surveys

It ensures representativeness

Main types of media outlets

traditional media- newspapers, magazines

broadcast media- radio, television

digital media- online sites, social media, podcasts

Legal foundation of press freedom

First Amendment

News deserts

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

Media bias

Systematic favoritism in news coverage

Solutions to media bias

Transparency, media literacy

Types of bias

Political, Gender, Race

Dixon & Williams (2015) findings

Minorities are overrepresented as criminals

Trend of media trust in the U.S.

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

Hostile media perception

Belief that neutral media is biased against one's side

Agenda setting

Media tells people what to think about

Variants of agenda setting

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

Priming

Media affects evaluation criteria

Framing

How issues are presented affects interpretation

Two-step flow model

Media → Opinion leaders → Public

Modern opinion leaders

Social media influencers

Multi-step flow model

Networked influence beyond two steps

One-step flow model

Direct influence via algorithms; still debated