Political Culture and Media Genre : Beyond the News

Exploring the forms and meanings of mediated politics beyond the news cycle, this book encompasses genres drawn from television, radio, the press and the internet, assessing their individual and collective contribution to contemporary political culture through textual analysis and thematic review. This book explores the forms and meanings of mediated politics beyond the news cycle. It encompasses genres drawn from television, radio, the press and the internet, assessing their individual and collective contribution to contemporary political culture through textual analysis and thematic review, including attention to audience responses and reflections. The academic study of political communication usually focuses on political journalism - the challenges it faces, the economic, political and social conditions under which it operates, and the implications for a healthy public sphere. But mediated politics goes well beyond the news coverage. Politicians and their activities are evaluated by columnists and bloggers, lampooned in cartoons, narrativised in dramas, satirised in broadcasting panel shows, and discussed, in different ways, by citizens themselves. Through these genres and others, the world of politics is kept at the forefront of mediated culture. 'Beyond the news' is where judgments are publicly made, the imagination gets to work and emotion as well as information is mobilised, variously addressed to different parts of the national audience, and variously relevant to citizens' understandings of, and feelings towards, politics itself This book explores the forms and meanings of mediated politics beyond the news cycle. It encompasses genres drawn from television, radio, the press and the internet, assessing their individual and collective contribution to contemporary political culture through textual analysis and thematic review, including attention to audience responses and reflections. The academic study of political communication usually focuses on political journalism 6 the challenges it faces, the economic, political and social conditions under which it operates, and the implications for a healthy public sphere. But mediated politics goes well beyond the news coverage. Politicians and their activities are evaluated by columnists and bloggers, lampooned in cartoons, narrativised in dramas, satirised in broadcasting panel shows, and discussed, in different ways, by citizens themselves. Through these genres and others, the world of politics is kept at the forefront of mediated culture. 'Beyond the news' is where judgments are publicly made, the imagination gets to work and emotion as well as information is mobilised, variously addressed to different parts of the national audience, and variously relevant to citizens' understandings of, and feelings towards, politics itself Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction....Pages 1-16 Broadcasting Beyond the News: Performing Politics....Pages 17-45 The Political World in Print — Images and Imagination....Pages 46-73 Politicality and the Web — Tracking the Cross-Currents....Pages 74-101 Media Audiences and Public Voices — Terms of Engagement....Pages 102-133 Mediation and Theme....Pages 134-166 The Forms and Functions of Genre in Mediated Politics....Pages 167-186 Back Matter....Pages 187-230