Political Communication Culture

How does the way people think about politics influence the way and the means by which politics is communicated? And how does the communication of politics impact on political orientations and symbols? These questions are at the core of political communication culture, which refers to the forms of expression and the attitudinal milieu in which politics and media interact. The study of the interaction of media and politics with regard to the cultural roots of political communication was introduced by Gurevitch and Blumler (1977). Their aim was to identify and to analyze key dimensions along which political culture impacts on the processes and outcomes of political communication. Political culture refers to the → meanings attributed to politics. The study of political communication cultures has turned out to be most fruitful as a comparative framework. The investigation of political communication cultures across countries, social segments, or time may provide us with a better understanding of the processes of encoding and decoding political messages, the vocabulary of politics, the culture of journalism, the interrelationships between media and politics, and the relations between citizens and political elites (→ Political Communication).