My Humble Thoughts on Political Communication Research in Asia

Emerging online arenas offer new possibilities for the study of online communication aided by computer-assisted methods of data collection. However, these possibilities also entail certain challenges. As online data collection such as “scraping” of web content becomes part of the methodological repertoire of non-technically inclined researchers, and as the data available for researchers to place under scrutiny grows ever more plentiful, we point to two challenges that need to be tackled if we are to grasp current developments. How can we make sense of the massive amounts of novel forms of mediated communication, and how can we approach them in an ethically sound manner? While all branches of media and communication research face these challenges, we are specifically interested in discussing them in relation to the broad field of political communication. Political communication research tries to understand and explain all forms of “purposeful communication about politics” (McNair 2003: 23). To do so, researchers have sampled newspaper articles, studied a selection of television broadcasts, analysed documentaries, or listened in on specific radio programmes. In the age of the mass media, these were perfectly legitimate approaches – and they still are. Yet political communication research has had to expand its arsenal of approaches. During the roughly 15 years that have passed since the Web emerged as a mainstream platform for mediated communication, researchers have tried to grasp its effect on political communication. The majority of such work, however, notably relies on traditional methodological approaches. If we wish to properly understand online political communication, we need to explore novel possibilities. To assess the importance of blog posts, twitter messages and other so-called social media outlets as platforms for political expression, to take one pertinent example, we first need to get an overview of the different types of these mediated forms of expression in our polity. This does not only entail intricate definitional delimitations, but also a some what daunting methodological task. Those trying to get an overview of the online communication during the latest Swedish election, for instance, would find a lot of material – too much even to get a perspective on, perhaps. The number of messages or utterances users of one not very widespread service (Twitter) themselves labelled #val2010” (“election2010”) amounted to over 100,000 during a one-month period leading up to the election. Still, empirical endeavours based on such data constitute necessary steps on the way forward for political communication research. And they clearly entail some challenges.

This chapter discusses the interaction between social movements and the mass media. It explains why and how this relationship can be seen as one of mutual dependency. Social movements need mass media attention to amplify their claims; the media attend to movements because they create newsworthy events. We take stock of the research that has been done and focus on various elements of this relationship. Following a classic political communication process approach, we first discuss the causes for media to devote attention to social movements and their events. Next, we focus on the content of this coverage and how it is analyzed by social movement scholars. Finally, we look at the various consequences of media coverage for social movements, in terms of mobilization, reaching political change and obtaining favorable public opinion. Authors’ bio Rens Vliegenthart is assistant professor in political communication in the department of Communication Science and at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam. His research focuses on media-politics dynamics, with a special interest in the role of non-institutional actors, such as social movements. Furthermore, he has an interest in methods for comparative research in political communication and the application of time series analysis in that area.

Political Communication is a sub-field of Political Science and Communication that deals with the production, dissemination, procession and effects of information, both through the mass media of communication, the Newspaper Press, Radio, Television, Social Media, Ora-media and interpersonally within a political context. This study examines political communication in the 2015 General Elections with special/particular reference to Oyo State of Nigeria- “the wild, wild west”. The study analyses the political communication strategies of fourteen (14) political parties in thirty-three Local Government areas of Oyo State, the speeches of eight (8) gubernatorial/governorship candidates/ politicians (political speechifying), those who tried to influence the political process and the outcome of the 2015 election in the state. The paper examines the formal and informal conversations among members of the Oyo State public and did a content analysis of some of the Newspapers, Radio and Television Stations both government - owned and private ones that were used to cover the Presidential, Gubernatorial, National Assembly, and State Assembly Elections in the State. Policy recommendations are made for future political communication in Oyo State in particular, and Nigeria in general.

<span lang="EN">The rise of social media platforms over the past two decades has reshaped how citizens engage with public life, political discourse, and democratic processes. This paper examines the theoretical and empirical dimensions of that reshaping through a review of existing scholarship in political communication, media studies, and democratic theory. Drawing on Habermasian public sphere theory, digital democracy frameworks, and political communication research, the paper traces how social media simultaneously opened new channels for civic participation and introduced structural problems that now test the foundations of deliberative democracy. These problems include algorithmic filter bubbles, political polarization, coordinated misinformation campaigns, and the growing concentration of communicative power in a small number of private platforms. The paper also considers how networked social movements have used these platforms for collective action, from the Arab Spring to more recent protest waves, and what those movements reveal about the limits and possibilities of platform-mediated politics. The analysis concludes that social media has not simply disrupted democratic participation but has fundamentally altered its conditions, requiring scholars, citizens, and policymakers to revisit foundational assumptions about deliberation, representation, and the public good.</span>

How the media and journalists “frame” politics has been the subject of a great many theoretical and empirical investigations by political communication scholars over the past three decades. In political communication, a frame can be understood as a journalistic or elite viewpoint or angle, which highlights one aspect of a political issue over another. The existence of frames in political communication has been shown conclusively, so a logical next question for many scholars is whether and how frames actually influence citizens’ understanding of political issues and processes. These framing effects can help us explain in what ways subtle differences in the presentation of a political issue can lead to changes in interpretation, attitudes, emotions and behavior. When looking at the political arena, framing effect studies have investigated all sorts of issues and events, ranging from social protest, to elections, government spending, and European Union (EU) integration. However, perhaps because the idea of framing effects proved to be so valuable for studying different political issues and contexts, studies have often neglected to incorporate their findings into a comprehensive theory of framing effects. So, we have many case studies of framing effects, but many questions regarding the theoretical underpinnings of the concept are still unanswered. Among other things, this has led to a fierce debate on the value and future of framing effects within political communication research. This article therefore focuses only on scholarship of framing effects that have significantly advanced its theoretical development, rather than specific political issues or events.

In recent years many political communication researchers have attempted to relate the attributes of political messages to the circumstances of the generative institutions of political communication, political institutions and media institutions. This mode of analysis helps reveal why the political messages produced by actors within these institutions have the attributes that define them and lead to their civic consequences. As its generative institutions undergo fundamental changes in response to altered circumstances, raising the possibility of corresponding but not yet known changes in democratic processes and practices, the study of political communication has taken on particular urgency. This essay describes some of the current research that endeavors to appreciate the wider context of political communication and illustrates some of the main themes of political communication study.

This study examines code-switching behaviours of cross-platform social media users specifically between Twitter and Parler during the 2020 US Presidential Election. Utilising social identity theory as a framework, we examine messages related to voter fraud by users who migrated from Twitter to Parler following Twitter bans. Our analysis covers 38,798 accounts active on both platforms, analysing 1.5 million tweets and more than 100,000 parleys. The key findings of the study are as follows: First, we discovered differing levels of network homophily between high degree centrality and low-degree centrality cross-platform users, illustrating how individuals with varying degrees of influence engage differently across platforms. Second, we observed higher toxicity levels in heterogeneous networks, which include both in-group and out-group members, compared with homogeneous networks that are primarily composed of in-group members. This suggests the level of toxicity in online spaces correlates with the level of group diversity. Third, we found that cross-platform users created distinctive discourse community with in-group and out-group members, indicating that content and discussions within these networks are influenced by the social identity dynamics of the users. Our study contributes to the current research in political communication and information science by proposing comparative user analyses across multiple social media platforms. Focusing on a critical period of platform transition during a contentious political event, our study offers insights into the dynamics of online communities and the shifting nature of political language used by social media users.

Political communication is a dynamic, interdisciplinary field that has grown in stature and reach in recent decades, becoming more international in scope and orientation while gaining respect in political science as a legitimate area of inquiry. In the evolving and participatory media-politics landscape, it becomes important to ask how the cross-disciplinary project of political communication research is keeping pace with changing conditions that provide a greater structural role for the press in politics and new technology in the enactment of citizenship. To track these trends in research, this paper reports the results of a longitudinal content analysis of research articles published in the journals Political Communication and the International Journal of Press/Politics for the period 1996-2016. For each year, we selected one issue at random and examined all research articles in that issue, excluding reviews, invited theme essays, and commentaries. Altogether, 229 articles were included in the analysis. Results indicate a noticeable increase in the internationalization of political communication research over the 20-year analysis period, a slight decrease in research expressing a negative evaluative tone toward the media over time, and consistent growth in the percentage of articles with a media-centric focus, defined as positioning the press as a central consideration in the study and regarding news media as central to democratic life. In light of these findings, the unique interpretive lenses that researchers adopt depending on discipline are explored in relation to ongoing developments in political communication research.

This paper calls attention to what is arguably the most notable advancement in survey experiments over the last decade: conjoint designs. The benefit of conjoint design is its capacity to study and compare the causal effects of several dimensions simultaneously. Although survey experiments have long been a preferred method for assessing causal effects, the method falls short when studying multidimensional causal relations.Researchers face a trade-off between a lack of statistical power or a restriction in experimental conditions. Conjoint designs solve this problem by letting the researcher vary an indefinite number of factors in one experiment. This method is quickly gaining ground in social and political science but has yet to be widely practiced in political communication research. This article argues that conjoint designs are ideal for studying political communication effects and highlights the possible benefits of using and innovating conjoint designs in political communication research. We make available sample scripts and demonstrate the value of this methodological technique through empirical examples of trust in news media and selective exposure to political news.

The development and global diffusion of social media lead to high expectations among scholars and practitioners that this could improve democracy, including in cities. Empirical research has, however, cast doubt on these expectations, and found that governments and policy makers rarely use social media to increase public participation. This chapter therefore investigates how local politicians, communication officers and other administrators in the urban development policy area in Oslo, describe their social media activities. One main finding of this study is that their use of social media is more interactive than is often described in political communication and e-government research. Another is that this interaction contains elements of not only controlled, but also responsive, interactivity. The main contribution of the chapter is the development of the concept of ‘responsive interactivity’. This is defined as being an activity in which politicians and bureaucrats acquire information about citizens opinions and grievances through social media, respond to and explain their stance and their actions to the users, and adapt policies, programmes, projects, or services to the citizens’ input. This contributes to a more nuanced image of governments’ use of social media that emphasizes the interactive aspects, without subscribing to the idea that this alone will democratize politics and government.

Political communication is A Process in which political Actors ( party , leader, Government or political institute) ,citizen , Media( Traditional and New Media ) get connected with one another. They do communicate among Themselves. Political Actors Try to Influence Public Through ideas, agendas, policies, party manifesto or they do influence the opinion of their targeted audiences in this political communication while citizen also do Active participation in politics through their involvement in Political Affairs, voting , political Movements . While Media plays a mediator but very significant role In political communication. this political communication or connection between political parties and public is set up by media vastly. If we talk about media there are two types of media which are traditional & Digital social media. Television, Radio, Newspaper, magazine are the example of traditional media .people mostly use this traditional media to get connected with political affairs . But in digital world social media also influencing people therefore political parties are using various social media platforms such as twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, or Instagram for political communication. Now if we talk about propaganda which political parties or their leaders use to gain political support of the public or to gain public vote in favour of them.political parties or their leaders try to manipulate or influence the opinion of public by spreading false, half truth or twisted facts, exaggeration which is called propaganda. Through my research paper I want to explore the political communication, media and propaganda in Indian Democracy. How this affecting The Indian Democratic Development .

Comparative research guides our attention to understanding how communication phenomena vary in different spatial, cultural, or temporal environments and how macro‐level societal contexts shape communication and outcomes differentially. In this review we argue that the significance of comparative research in political communication has been to describe and explain the effects of system‐level factors on processes of communication on the individual, organizational, or group level. Based on findings from current research we highlight that comparative approach has significantly advanced the study of media and political communication systems, journalism and political communication culture, election campaigning and information environments as well as research on the Internet and civic attitudes. In the concluding section we argue particularly that globalization puts new challenges on comparative research in future communication scholarship.

Social media is a pervasive part of everyday life. That is, new media occupies more and more spaces in individuals’ lives both in intimate and work sphere. In addition, due to convergence, new media brought together interpersonal and mass communications in the same environment. This fact has caused a wide range of changes in cultural industries. One of the main changes brought about by social media in relation to the mass media is the construction of a flow of content, advertising and propaganda customized for each individual, and constructed from surveillance and control of individuals’ interactions in digital networks. For so doing, one element is central: Algorithms. It is not only by means of contents produced by cultural workers or amateurs that social media guarantees the life world colonization by the system, but mainly through the tracking of user interactions. That is possible thanks to the data gathering performed by algorithms. Therefore, social networks colonize the life world in a more constant and pervasive way than mass media, facilitating surveillance and social control that are vital for both, the digital conglomerates economic power and the state capacity to watch individuals, either to strengthen the sales effort or to ensure citizen vigilance.

In political preferences, religion plays a vital role as a consideration for the millennial generation. This is because Indonesia still considers religion in setting policies as it does in political parties and general elections. This study analyzes the political communication system of millennial Muslim Islam on social media in the face of the 2024 presidential election (netnographic analysis). This study applies the netnographic research method through a qualitative approach to understand how the Islamic political communication system works in millennial Muslim society on social media and the geopolitics of millennial Muslims in Indonesia in the face of the 2024 presidential election. Data collection uses analytics related to election data—President in 2024. The study results show that the application of political communication among millennial Muslims on social media is in the form of support and criticism on the hashtag #pemilu2024. Social media proves that distance and time limits are not obstacles to voicing opinions, criticizing and supporting each other. Several things that can be done to map Islamic political communication systems and millennial Muslim geopolitics on social media include: (1) Analyze Islamic political trends that occur on social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, by searching for keywords related to Islamic politics and monitor how communication patterns are between Muslim millennials; (2) Understanding millennial Muslim sentiments on social media by reading and monitoring conversations on social media; and (3) understand the patterns used in communicating, taking into account the type of content they share, the frequency of social media use, as well as the most used platforms. Too much social media reach without knowing boundaries makes social media challenging to control. The strength of political competition becoming increasingly evident must be accompanied by carefulness in filtering information not to complicate the situation. As millennials amid vulnerable hostilities, they should be able to become pioneers or fortresses in avoiding the opposing currents of the impact of social media in political times.Keywords: Political Communication, Millennial Muslims, Geopolitical Mapping, Social Media, Presidential Election

Political communication research has become more international over the past decades, but this has mainly meant expanding the scope of our discipline from the very United States-centric perspective that characterized its founding years to the broader realm of liberal Western democracies. As a result, a wide gap remains between our knowledge of political communication in countries in the so-called Global North and Global South. Besides expanding its international outlook, contemporary political communication research needs to tackle the challenges of reconciling different normative perspectives and to embrace the opportunities of “post-disciplinary” approaches.