The Professionalisation of Political Communication

Ralph Negrine, Christina Holtz-Bacha, Stylianos Papathanassopoulos

• Publisher: Intellect Books
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN: 9781841501598
• eBook ISBN: 9781841509624
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politica e relazioni internazionali
• Subtopic: Studi sulla comunicazione

Has the communication of politics become professionalised? Who are the 'professionals' and what part do they play in the political process? Can the process of professionalisation be observed in different political systems? These, and related questions, about the changing nature of practices in political communication are explored in this book that looks at developments across a number of different countries. The different ways in which the idea of the professionalisation of political communication has been commonly used is explored and the authors develop a framework for understanding changing practices in political communication and in different contexts, for example, in respect of political campaigns and elections in general, and in respect of communication by governments. It is also focuses on these same themes in specific countries: Germany, France, Britain, Greece, the Netherlands, Hungary, Italy, Sweden.

1

POLITICAL COMMUNICATION IN THE ERA OF PROFESSIONALISATION

Papathanassopoulos, Negrine, Mancini and Holtz-Bacha

INTRODUCTION

The central argument in this book is that contemporary practices in the content and conduct of political communication can be best understood when looked at in both an historical and comparative context. Rather than focus on, or become excited by, the most recent development in the conduct of political communication, be it new techniques of polling, ‘spin doctoring’, targeting or marketing, we need to develop a broader understanding of what each of these developments – singly and collectively – signifies. Furthermore, we need to do this in such a way as to begin to outline some of the common themes that permit us to understand changes in the conduct of political communication that pull together what has been, at least in the past, a fairly loose set of ideas, subjects and areas of interest.

One way in which this could be done, and we would argue should be done, is to provide a common point of focus, a common way in which we can begin to explore similarities as well as differences. That way is through the elaboration of the idea of the professionalisation of political communication.

As an idea, professionalisation – and we are fully aware of the contested nature of this word, as well as of its variants of profession, professionalisation, professionalism, and professional – allows us to identify and link up many things that should really be linked together. For example, the use of polls, the use of political consultants, practices of news management, the creation of a ‘war room’, or the use of focus groups, are probably best understood as part and parcel of the modern election campaign, as part of the ‘professionalised Paradigm’. As Holtz-Bacha argues in this book.

professionalisation of political communication is a process of adaptation to, and as such a necessary consequence of, changes in the political system on the one side and the media system on the other and in the relationship of the two systems. These changes follow from the modernisation of society, which is a development that is still going on and will take place in similar political systems sooner or later. Professionalisation in this sense is a general and not culture-bound concept. Its actual appearance and the degree of professionalisation in a given country are however dependent on a country’s specific social and political structures and processes.

More generally, professionalisation can also be treated as an idea that permits us to examine issues that go beyond the immediate concern with political communication during elections. It can, for instance, provide a prism through which one can begin to explore the centralisation of governmental communication, the communication strategies of governments and interest groups (Davies, 2002; Schlesinger & Tumber, 1994) and the developing relationship between all political actors, including political parties, candidates and social movements and the media. Nevertheless, the main focus in this book is on political parties, candidates for political office, and governments.

Professionalisation, as understood in this book, thus refers to a process of change, in the field of politics and communication as elsewhere, that, either explicitly or implicitly, brings about a better and more efficient – and more studied – organisation of resources and skills in order to achieve desired objectives, whatever they might be. In effect, the idea of the professionalisation of political communication suggests a number of things:

It suggests the creation of a more ‘rational’ and more streamlined organisational structure or a more ‘appropriate’ set of practices.¹ This could be taking place in relation to the operation of communication facilities (a more skilful use of television, for example), campaigning techniques (better use of polling data or better targeting of voters, for example), the re-organisation of political parties themselves (as in centralisation), the re-organisation of government communication systems (as in the creation of a centralised communication directorate to co-ordinate publicity) and even in respect of media-politics relations (as in news management techniques). This use of the word parallels the idea, proposed by Leon Mayhew, that what we are currently experiencing is a ‘rationalisation of persuasion’ and that the intent behind this process is to find and utilise ‘effective means of persuasion based on research on audiences and the organisation of systematic campaigns’ (1997, p. 190).

It suggests that the process of professionalisation is ongoing and takes place within societies that are themselves undergoing a process of modernisation. The word modernisation may have many different meanings: here we are referring essentially to the processes of differentiation and secularisation taking place within contemporary societies. At the same time, we wish to emphasise the growth of a plurality of sources of information that make individuals less dependent on a single source of information and/or persuasion. This would apply to many different fields, including the field of religion, politics, culture, etc.

It suggests that there are many reasons as to why it unfolds (see Chapter 2). In the case of political parties, the reasons might include the need to confront a changing electorate with no particular allegiances, as well as the need to find ways to persuade and mobilise them. In the case of governments and interest groups the reasons might include the need to find better ways to get media attention and to place items on the public’s agenda. There are other such reasons which locate the process of professionalisation within what Wernick has called ‘the logic of electoralism’ (1994, p. 142), namely, the process whereby political parties, amongst others, employ a range of skills to meet their objectives of gaining and sustaining power. Sometimes, the development of professional skills is linked to technological change, as in the use of television or internet technologies, but, at other times, it could also be linked to developments in the scientific field more generally. Mayhew, for example, observes how the use of polling was predicated on improvements in the understanding and use of sampling methods (1997, p. 191).

It suggests that the process of professionalisation of political communication is inextricably bound up with developments in the media, in the past and in the present. In this respect, the media are not simply channels of communication between the worlds of politics and the public. What they do and how they do it impacts on the conduct and practice of politics. Those in charge of politics and communication, more generally, are aware of the presence and ‘logic’ of the media and so anticipate the selection and processing of messages by the media. This is often referred to as the ‘mediatisation of politics’. As Mazzoleni and Schulz have pointed out:

To characterise politics as being mediatised goes beyond a mere description of system requirements. Mediatised politics is politics that has lost its autonomy, has become dependent in its central functions on mass media, and is continuously shaped by interactions with mass media. This statement of the mediatisation hypothesis is based on observations of how mass media produce political content and interfere with political processes. (1999, p. 250).

It suggests the development and growth of a set of specialisms and specialist skills that are used in the context of the persuasion and mobilisation of individuals as citizens, voters and consumers.

The professionalisation of political communication refers not only to a move away from traditional forms of election campaigning to more modern ways and means, but also to changes within the political system.These developments do not only reflect a changing media environment but also changes in the standing of the political parties within the political system as a whole. Professionalisation, in other words, focuses on the mutual developments and changes; it also reflects the convergences as well as interdependencies between the political and communication systems.

It would thus be a mistake to consider the process of professionalisation in the context of political communication only, or mainly, as above. Our argument is that processes of professionalisation take place in all walks of life as individuals and groups develop practices that are deemed better, or an improvement on, earlier practices and then apply them to particular contexts. Pollsters, for instance, constantly improve their skills for measuring public opinion; advertisers continually update practices; those in the business of communications – PR, marketing, etc. – constantly review and learn new skills, and so on. At each stage, individuals are improving their skills or, in common parlance, becoming more professional at what they are doing. Unlike the case of the traditional professions of medicine and law where one is either a professional or not, in the range of occupations surrounding the arts of communications – advertising, PR, marketing, etc. – there is a more continuous process of development and application in order to remain at the cutting edge of change.

In this much broader context, processes of professionalisation are not in evidence simply in relation to political communication, but are a feature of modernisation itself. Consequently, it is a process that is not related to particular eras or technologies but is part of a much longer historical process of change. The importance of this point becomes apparent, as Chapter 2 shows, when we begin to consider the points at which political parties begin to use professionals to help them achieve their objectives of election success.

Often, as we shall see, political parties have turned to outsiders to help them run their campaigns or organisations. These would have been individuals, usually politically sympathetic individuals, who turned their skills to party political use. Advertisers, polling experts, film experts form such a group: individuals brought in to improve the strategies and tactics of the political parties. Such outsiders form only one of many types of individuals that have been used and only one of many different ways in which the process of professionalisation has impacted on political communication.

Outsiders entering an organisation offer a simple example of a process of professionalisation, but sometimes the change takes place from within. Outsiders might act as volunteers or might be employed for a temporary period, but professionals (e.g. journalists, managers) may be employed permanently by a political party and then use their skills to modernise and professionalise the party from within. Similarly, professionals often advise politicians on how to improve their communication skills or demeanour, but politicians, in due course, internalise those skills and might employ them within other contexts and use them to advise others. This relates to a more general distinction between an era in which party bureaucrats mobilised and administered election campaigns and one in which a ‘culture of marketing’ has established itself at the centre of a party organisation and offers both executive and strategic support to the running of the election campaign.

In thinking about the professionalisation of political communication in respect of the individuals to which it refers, we therefore need to consider both the external dimension (e.g. who is being employed to do what?) but also the internal dimension (e.g. what is happening from within) alongside a more general question relating to the changing location of control (e.g. pollsters are being employed but who directs their work and who makes the final decision?). In other words, there is a complex interplay between outsiders and insiders and between those who exercise control (e.g. are they party employees, party leaders, outside professionals?) and those who simply act as experts or specialists fulfilling particular tasks. What we need to do is not simply ask questions about the professionalisation of political communication but about the insertion of the process of professionalisation in the development of political parties themselves that sees them adopting models of organisation that had proved themselves in other sectors. Forza Italia, for example, was modelled on a ‘company model’ that had presumably worked for Berlusconi (Calise, 2000; Diamanti, 1994); the Labour Party in 1997 adopted a campaign that was structured around the idea of a ‘war-room’ (Gould, 1998; Scammell, 1998). And the Labour Party’s ‘war-room’ was the model for the German Social Democrats (SPD) when they established the ‘Kampa’ for their 1998 election campaign. In both cases, campaign specialists from within the party worked hand in hand with experts from market and media research or advertising agencies (von Webel, 1999). These developments can be taken to represent a process whereby political parties adapt by using ‘models’ or ‘practices’ that have been tried and tested elsewhere; just as they did when they absorbed the lessons from advertising and commerce (Kelly, 1956; Mayhew, 1997).

Nevertheless, the process of professionalisation is complex and uneven: different political arrangements, different usages of technologies, different stages of developments, and so on all create different conditions in which professionalisation can take place. This explains why not all countries display the same characteristics in the way that commerce has been injected into politics.

Framing the book’s central theme in this way, it places the contributions at a distance from accounts that link contemporary developments to single causes – be they Americanisation, or developments in particular technologies. To understand the processes of professionalisation, we need to adopt a more holistic approach and one that connects change in different spheres – politics, commerce, communication, social change – and across time itself. Obviously not all spheres are equally significant or dominant but the interaction and interpenetration of influences produces the contemporary arrangements.

We need therefore to monitor the trends among different societies and to try to trace these trends where in some cases and countries they are apparent while in others are latent. This is the reason that this book follows both a comparative and country-by-country approach.

PROFESSIONALISATION, MODERNISATION AND AMERICANISATION

Professionalisation, as we use it here, cuts across other equally contested concepts such as modernisation, Americanisation, homogenisation, as it deals with a more general process of change taking place in contemporary societies. In this respect, professionalisation does touch on the idea of Americanisation (see, amongst others, Negrine & Papathanassopoulos, 1996) – in as much as it highlights the existence of practices in the US that are also used elsewhere – but it sees these developments not simply as a transfer of ideas or practices from one country to another but as essentially representing the desire that appears to be ever-present in nearly all contemporary societies to utilise the best ideas and practices available. So, for example, even in Hungary, a country that has only recently undergone a process of democratisation, the willingness to use modern methods, i.e. methods that are deemed to be the best ideas and practices currently available, is very much in evidence (see chapter 10).

The emphasis we place on the idea of professionalisation is of a process of continual self-improvement and change towards what is deemed to be a better way of doing things, be it winning an election, achieving consensus, gaining support for policies, ensuring successful governance, that is made possible by technological and communications innovations, as well as a more general process of skills specialisation. Though it obviously does matter where these ideas originated, it matters less than the apparent willingness to use them in different settings. The idea of professionalisation touches on that element of willingness to change, and the reasons underpinning that willingness.

What does the idea of professionalisation derive from the idea of modernisation which also addresses this sense of gradual change and improveme...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Title Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Chapter 1: Political Communication in the Era of Professionalisation
• Chapter 2: The Professionalisation of Political Communication in Europe
• Chapter 3: Professionalisation in the British Electoral and Political Context
• Chapter 4: Professionalisation of Politics in Germany
• Chapter 5: The Swedish Model Becomes Less Swedish
• Chapter 6: From Accommodation to Professionalisation? The Changing Culture and Environment of Dutch Political Communication
• Chapter 7: Political Professionalism in Italy
• Chapter 8: Political Communication and Professionalisation in Greece
• Chapter 9: The Evolution of French Political Communication: Reaching the Limits of Professionalisation?
• Chapter 10: Political Transition and the Professionalisation of Political Communication
• Chapter 11: The Professionalisation of Political Communication: Democracy at Stake?
• Index