Suchergebnisse

"Much election communication scholarship could be described as anomic: short on standards but long on criticism. On the one hand, classical notions of democracy, and of the place of the interested/informed/ rational elector in it, have mostly been abandoned (without replacement by principal alternatives). On the other hand, the media are often condemned for numerous research-documented inadequacies of campaign reporting and election role. Meanwhile, television, a crucial vehicle of political communication generally and election communication specifically, has been exposed to an increasingly hostile barrage of criticism by standard-bearers of a wide range of causes and interests for its alleged failure to present their concerns authentically. In such an atmosphere, the time may be ripe for reappraisals and fresh statements of the standards of political journalism. Five priority guidelines for the enhancement of political journalism are proposed for discussion: (1) In media coverage of campaigns (and politics more widely) there should be more invitations to choose than to kibbitz'. (2) More credible and valid formats of political advocacy should be devised and tried. (3) The norm of impartiality should be re-interpreted to mean that all major opinion and interest groupings should be able 'at least to recognise in the coverage of their affairs the essential elements of what they believe'. (4) In addition to the more adversarial qualities of challenge, vigilance and exposure, a rounded political coverage would also occasionally acknowledge the problems involved in shouldering political responsibility and trying to implement policies. This is not a matter of looking up deferentially to office-holders but of avoiding an overly simplistic projection of the political vocation. (5) Ways should be explored of occasionally expressing explicitly those normative guidelines that predominantly shape political stories implicitly at present." (author's abstract)