Politics – Origin

• The term `politics‟, is derived from the Greek word

`Polis‟, which means the “city state”
• According to Greek Philosophers, Politics was a subject
which dealt with all the activities and affairs of the city
state.
• Their City States were known as `Polis‟.
• City state was an all inclusive term, as the ancient
Greeks made no distinction between the state and the
Government on one hand, and State and Society on the
other.
• They never differentiated between personal life and
social life. Hence according to them Politics was a total
study of man, society, state, morality and so on.
Definition of Politics

According to Harold Lasswell

"Politics is the process of who gets what, when, and
how.“
According to David Easton
"A political system can be designated as those
interactions through which values are authoritatively
allocated for a society.“
 Definition of Politics
According to Max Weber
"A political association exists if ... the enforcement of its
order is carried out continually within a given territorial
area by the application and threat of physical force.”

According to Robert Dahl

"A political system is any persistent pattern of human
relationships that involves ... power, rule, or authority."
Definition of Political communication:

Denton and Woodward (1990: 14)

“Pure discussion about the allocation of public resources
(revenues), official authority (who is given the power to
make legal, legislative and executive decision), and
official sanctions (what the state rewards or punishes)”

Graber (1981) Political communication is political

language which
“comprises of rhetoric as well as paralinguistic signs such
as body language, and political acts such as boycotts and
protests” (cited on McNair 2003)
Purposeful communication about politics
include
McNair (2003: 4)
Purposeful communication about politics include
1. All forms of communication undertaken by
politicians and other political actors for the purpose
of achieving specific objectives
2. Communication addressed to these actors by non-
politicians such as voters and newspaper columnists
3. Communication about these actors and their
activities, as contained in news reports, editorials,
and other forms of media discussion of politics (p. 4)
• By political communication, not only verbal or written
statements, but also visual means of signification such
as dress, make-up, hairstyle, and logo design, i.e. all
those elements of communication which might be said
to constitute a political ‘image’ or identity.

• The political discussions of people in public places or at

dinner parties, the behind-closed-doors negotiations of
governments, and the information gleaned by
journalists from face-to-face meetings with high-level
sources, are highly significant for the political process.

• we should bear in mind the potential gap between the

public and the private in political rhetoric
 Political organizations

• Political actors, narrowly defined: those individuals

who aspire, through organizational and institutional
means, to influence the decision-making process

• They may seek to do this by attaining institutional

political power, in government or constituent
assemblies, through which preferred policies can be
implemented. If in opposition their objectives will be to
obstruct existing power-holders, and have them
replaced by alternatives.
Political organizations - Political parties
• political parties: aggregates of more or less like-minded
individuals, who come together within an agreed
organizational and ideological structure to pursue
common goals. These goals will reflect the party’s
underlying value system, or ideology,
• they share a commitment to constitutional means of
advancing their objectives, attempting to convince a
population as a whole of their correctness, and putting
their policies to the test of periodic elections.
• Once mandated (or rejected, as the case may be) they
agree to abide by the constitutional rules of the
political system in which they operate, respecting the
limitations it puts on their power to implement or
Political organizations - Political parties
• To achieve their goals (votes) political parties use
different tactics, including
• Political Marketing,
• Political advertising
• Public Relations

• Reactive political public relations techniques, in which

parties strive for damage-limitation, include the
lobbying of journalists, the ‘spinning’ of potentially
damaging stories, and the suppressing of potentially
damaging information.
Political organizations - Public organizations
• If parties are at the constitutional heart of the
democratic political process they are not, of course, the
only political actors. Surrounding the established
institutions of politics are a host of non-party
organizations with political objectives.
• Trade unions or professional associations can be
defined as public organizations.
• They are united not by ideology but by some common
feature of their members’ situation which makes it
advantageous to combine, such as work problems like
trade unions.
Political organizations – Pressure groups
• Pressure groups (or single-issue groups, as they are also
known) may be distinguished from the public
organizations listed above in that they are typically less
institutionalized and more overtly ‘political’ in their
objectives.
• Being concerned with such issues as the conservation of
the natural environment, and the prevention of cruelty
to animals being reared for human food consumption or
for use in the testing of drugs and cosmetics.
• Pressure group politics are largely about
communication, using the variety of advertising and
public relations techniques now available.
Political organizations – Terrorist organizations
• Although the term ‘terrorist’ is value laden, and may be
rejected by groups whose members may prefer to see
themselves as ‘freedom fighters’ in ‘national liberation’
or ‘resistance’ movements,
• The term mostly refers to groups which use terror
tactics – urban bombing, hi-jacking, assassination, and
kidnapping, to list the most common – to achieve their
political objectives.
• Modern terrorist organizations also use the public
relations and media management techniques of more
mainstream political actors, such as news conferences,
press releases and leaks.
Political organizations – The audience
• Audience is the second key element in the political
communication process.
• Without audience no political message can have any
relevance.
• The audience may be both broad and narrow.
• Whatever the size and nature of the audience,
however, all political communication is intended to
achieve an effect on the receivers of the message.
Political organizations – The Media
Political organizations – The Media

• Media organizations, comprises print, broadcasting and

online channels. These include websites operated by
established media organizations such as the BBC, CNN,
and the Wall Street Journal; blogs and independent
sites such as Wikileaks which are devoted to reporting,
aggregating or commenting on political issues; and
social networking sites. such as Facebook, and Twitter,
which allow internet users to share information rapidly.
• First, and most obviously, political actors must use the
media in order to have their messages communicated
to the desired audience.
Political organizations – The Media

• Media organizations, comprises print, broadcasting and

online channels. These include websites operated by
established media organizations such as the BBC, CNN,
and the Wall Street Journal; blogs and independent
sites such as Wikileaks which are devoted to reporting,
aggregating or commenting on political issues; and
social networking sites. such as Facebook, and Twitter,
which allow internet users to share information rapidly.
• First, and most obviously, political actors must use the
media in order to have their messages communicated
to the desired audience.
Political organizations – The Media

• Secondly the media organizations themselves are

important due to the organizational features of media
production which may work for or against political
communicators in their efforts to obtain coverage.
• Studies shows that a media organization can be
influenced with value judgments subjectivities and
biases.
Political organizations – The Media

• Kaid et al. suggest that we may view political ‘reality’ as

comprising three categories (1991):
• First, we may speak of an objective political reality,
comprising political events as they actually occur
• There is then a subjective reality – the ‘reality’ of
political events as they are perceived by actors and
citizens
• Third, and critical to the shaping of the second category
of subjective perceptions, is constructed reality,
meaning events as covered by the media.