Local Political Communication: Media and Local Publics in the Age of Globalization

Abstract

Local publics are neglected entities within the broad scope of communication studies. Our knowledge of how people communicate politically in their local communities is limited. This is a fact not only in regard to underresearched peripheral societies, but also in relation to the developed publics of Western democracies. Daily newspapers have long had a reputation of parochialism, local television news shows are associated with low standards and obsession with crime and scandals, and local radio has abandoned news in favor of music or talk show formulas. Even though globalization has advanced to become a catchword in analyses of urban economies and politics, communication studies seem reluctant to confront the interdependence between local and global media markets, local and global communication practices (i.e., local groups sustaining global movements) and local and global tools to gain political voice (i.e., the impact of the Internet on local communication). This chapter aims at diffusing notions of the local as being provincial or too small a unit for the analysis of public life. It intends to stimulate discussion about the relevance of local political communication arenas as unique public spaces as well as signifiers of national and global communication trends. It is common knowledge that social and political capital is acquired primarily through socialization processes in the immediate life world (Bourdieu 1982; Putnam 2000).

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