The Crisis of Political Communication: Normative Critiques of News and Democratic Processes

Abstract

Over the past 25 years, political communication researchers have presented mounting evidence of how the press fails its public mission by not adequately informing the electorate, presenting an accurate picture of civic affairs, or fostering a sense of connectedness to governing institutions. Perceived shortcomings of the political communication system and sustained controversy in the field over the nature and extent of media deficiencies have led scholars to articulate a crisis of communication for citizenship and a crisis of political communication research. Focusing on the literature of the press’s expanding role in the “modern campaign,” this chapter describes the schisms and disciplinary divides among scholars and identifies two valuative propositions emerging from normative critiques of news and democratic processes. The review also addresses the field’s historical ambivalence toward normative theory and discusses contemporary democratic expectations of the press. Finally, three developments within political communication theory and research— public journalism, constructionism, and electronic democracy—are reviewed to illustrate how the field might resituate communication in public life.

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