PROGRAMMING COMMUNICATION NETWORKS:

MEDIA POLITICS, SCANDAL POLITICS

AND THE CRISIS OF DEMOCRACY

Manuel Castells

Communication Power

POWER MAKING BY IMAGE MAKING

What is Politics?

Politics is the process of allocation of power in the institutions of the

state.

Power Relations today?

• Power relationships are largely based on the shaping of the human mind by the construction of meaning through image making.

Only Image Making in the Media?

• The fact that politics is essentially played out in the media does not mean that other factors (e.g. grassroots activism or fraud) are not significant in deciding the outcome of political contests.

Neither does it imply that the media are the power holders.

They are not the Fourth Estate.

They are much more important: they are the space of

power making.

Media as Space

• The media constitute the space where power relationships are decided between competing political and social actors.

Space, messages and actors

• Therefore, almost all actors and messages must go through the media in order to achieve their goals.

Rules, Language and Interests

• They have to accept the rules of media engagement, the language of the media, and media interests.

Non neutrality

• The media, as a whole, are not neutral, as the ideology of professional journalism asserts, neither are they direct instruments of state power.

with the obvious exception of mass media under authoritarian

regimes.

Why not neutral?

• Media actors construct communication platforms and engage in message production in line with their specific organizational and professional interests.

Given the diversity of media actors, these interests are also

diversified.

Remember

• Corporate media are primarily businesses, and most of their business is entertainment, including the news.

Key Rule

• For Media (Business or People) the key is to expand their influence and resources by expanding and deepening their audience.

Political Information

• People largely rely on the mass media to obtain most of their politically relevant information

Even on the Internet…

• in spite of the growing importance of the Internet, television and radio remain the most trusted source of political news

The Question?

• However, to say that politics in our age is media politics is not the final word but the opening question.

• How does this translate in the mechanisms of political conflict, political competition, political participation and decision-making?

Change in Politics

• How does the political agency transform itself to be more effective in the realm of media politics?

People in Politics

• What is the specific effect of media politics on political campaigns, leadership, and organization?

Communication

• To which extent do horizontal networks of mass self-communication, and particularly the Internet and wireless communication,

• modify political practices as compared to the conduct of politics in the mass media?

Symbolic Weapons

• What is the connection between media politics and the use of scandal politics as the weapon of choice in power struggles?

Democracy?

• And what are the observable consequences of the new brand of politics on democracy as a form of relationship between state and society?

THE KILLING (SEMANTIC) FIELDS: MEDIA POLITICS AT

WORK

The practice of media politics implies the performance of

several key tasks:

MEDIA POLITICS AT WORK

• The first is to secure access to the media by the social and political actors engaged in power making strategies.

• The second is the elaboration of messages and the production of images that best serve the interests of each power player. – Formulating effective messages requires an

identification of the target audience(s) as it fits the political strategy.

MEDIA POLITICS AT WORK

• Next, the delivery of the message requires the use of specific technologies and formats of communication, as well as the measure of its effectiveness through polling.

• And last, but not least, someone must pay for all of these increasingly expensive activities: the financing of politics is a central connecting point between political power and economic power.

two preliminary remarks

First, media politics is not limited to electoral campaigns.

<> Electoral campaigns

• It is a constant, fundamental dimension of politics, practiced by governments, parties, leaders, and non-governmental social actors alike.

• Affecting the content of the news on a daily basis is one of the most important endeavors of political strategists.

<> Electoral campaigns

• Although in democracy electoral campaigns are indeed the decisive moments…

• it is the continuing process of information and diffusion of images relevant to politics that conforms the public mind

• in ways that are difficult to alter during moments of heightened attention

unless

unless some truly dramatic event or message takes place near the

time of decision making.

<> Electoral campaigns

• In fact, it is a frequent practice of governments and politicians to create events or to highlight events as a form of political ploy…

• such as starting a crisis with another country, hosting a major international gathering (e.g. the Olympic Games)

• or revealing financial corruption or personal misconduct.

• Policies are largely dependent upon politics.

second remark concerns the diversity of media politics

according…

the institutional and cultural specificity of each country

paid television advertising is central to electoral campaigns in

the United States

in most European countries media advertising in electoral campaigns is highly regulated, and governments often provide

paid access to PBS

Gatekeeping democracy

Access to the media is provided by gatekeepers

This dimension of media politics is essential because without such

access messages and messengers cannot reach their

intended audience.

This is also the dimension that differs most amongst media regimes, particularly when it

comes to broadcasting.

• From tight government control, based on ownership or censorship,

• to private, commercial media business,

• and through all intermediate scenarios and mixed regimes,

• there is a broad range of variation in the mechanisms of media access.

First, there is a distinction to be made between political access

to the media through regular news and media programming

and access through paid political advertising.

Paid political advertising is more important in the United States than in other countries, and refers essentially to political

campaigns (a relentless activity in America).

• Political campaigns in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, offer a diverse mixture that combines government control over the media, paid advertising in the commercial media and clientele networks fed with cash and promises of favors.

• However, for the world at large, including the United States, I suggest that political access to regular TV and radio programming and the print press is the most important factor in the practice of media politics.

There are four components in the “access” process:

a)

• the overseeing organizational control of either government entities or corporate businesses (or, in some rare cases, nonprofit corporations),

b)

• editorial decisions

c)

• choices of the professional journalism corps,

d)

• the logic embedded in the adequate performance of the task assigned to the media organization, namely to attract the audience to the media product’s message.

Logic embedded

• The latter component is fundamental because it introduces flexibility into an otherwise one-directional flow of information.

Logic embedded

• It requires paying attention to the credibility of the medium by reporting on issues that people perceive as important and/or entertaining.

Logic embedded

• The absence of reporting on well-known events, or the blatant manipulation by the sender of information undermines the capacity of media to influence the receiver, thus limiting its relevance in media politics.

4Access politics is played out in

the interaction between these four levels of the gatekeeping process.

Thus,

• the more independence the medium has from government control…

• - whether through statutory independent public broadcasting (such as the BBC) or by private ownership –

• the more access will be influenced by commercial interests (advertising as a function of audience share) and/or by the professional corps.

Commercial Logic

• The more the medium is dominated by commercial logic, the more journalists will have to play within these limits.

Journalists

• The more journalists have a say in the programming, priming and framing, the more they will rely on attracting the public as a source of their professional influence.

Influence Expands

• And the more the actual course of events permeates into the media, the more the media influence expands, as people recognize themselves in what they read or watch.

If we combine these different effects, what we find in the

analysis is a common denominator effect and two

filters operating in the selection of media access.

Selection of Media Access

The common ground

Attractive > Boosts…

• What is attractive to the public boosts audience, revenue, influence, and professional achievement for the journalists and show anchors.

In the realm of politics…

Entertainment and Consumerist Culture• it means that the most successful

reporting is the one that maximizes the entertainment effects

• that correspond to the branded consumerist culture permeating our societies.

Deliberation vs. Emotion

• The notion of a deliberative democracy

• based on in-depth exposes and civilized exchanges

• about substantive issues in the mass media

• is at odds with the broader cultural trends of our time.

Not lost, but…

Small Segment

• Indeed, it is the mark of a small segment of elite media that cater primarily to decision makers and to a minority of highly educated strata of the population.

This does not mean that people at large do not care about

substantive issues.

Perception

• It means that for these issues (e.g. the economy, the war, the housing crisis)

• to be perceived by a broad audience

• they have to be presented in the language of infotainment,

• in the broadest sense: not just laughing matters, but human drama as well.

Perspective

• Seen from this perspective,

• politics becomes horserace politics: – who is winning? – who is losing? – How? – Why? – and what is the latest gossip? – or the dirtiest trick?

Please Note:

• exposing the wrongdoing of the powerful

• has always been the solace of the populace,

• and nowadays it can be interpreted on a mass communicated theatrical stage.

A key feature of theatrical politics is its personalization

A mass audience requires a simple message.

The simplest message is an image,

the simplest image,

and the one with whom people can identify the most,

is a human face

“Face”

• This does not only mean the physical traits of a person or the color of her dress.

> Character/Manifest

• More importantly is her character, as it is manifest in her appearance, in her words, and in the information and memories that she embodies.

Taxing/Emotion Citizens

• This is partly because understanding complex policy issues can be taxing for many citizens.

• while most of them have confidence in their ability to judge character

• which is an emotional response to the behavior of persons embedded in political narratives.

Thus, media politics is personalized politics

“candidate-centered politics”

Bet_1_Person

• This is perhaps the most important effect of media politics on the political process,

• because it provokes parties, unions, NGOs, and other political actors

• to rally around one person and bet on her chances alone in the political media market.

Personality politics

• Personality politics has characterized the political process in the entire world,

• to the detriment of stable parties, ideological affinities, and political machines.

The question is who selects whom

Political Narrative

• The media make the leaders known,

• and dwell in their battles, victories and defeats,

• because narratives need heroes (the candidate), villains (the opponent), and victims to be “rescued” (citizens).

Media Worthy

• But the would-be leaders have to position themselves as media-worthy,

• by using any available opening to display their tricks (or their virtues, for that matter).

How?

• They can do so by creating events

• that force the media to pay attention to them,

• as in the case of an underdog political candidate unexpectedly winning a primary election

Media outlets love stories of unlikely success

Celebrity Frame/Political Figure

• The more a political figure fits into a celebrity frame,

• the easier it is for the media to incorporate news about that candidate

• into the increasingly popular infotainment format of news provision.

Rise and Fall of…

• However, “success story” frames are commonly reversed,

• as chronicles of falls from grace are as juicy as fairy tales of improbable triumph.

Processing

• Yet, it is important to remember the principle:

• political material (persons, messages, events) is processed as exciting infotainment material

• formatted in sports language • and coached in narratives as close as

possible to tales of intrigue, sex, and violence.

Naturally

• Naturally, while maintaining noble themes about democracy, patriotism,

• and the well being of the nation on behalf of the common folk

• (the man in the street, this mythical creature who has replaced citizenship in the media world).

filters

This logic of access selection is deeply modified by the activation of two filters.

(1)

The first filter is direct government control, by either explicit censorship

or hidden directives.

This of course refers to authoritarian governments, such

as China or Russia

But even in…

• But even in democratic regimes,

• governments often interfere with the operations of national broadcasters

• or with other media outlets over which they wield financial or indirect influence.

Even typical

• I would even say that this practice is typical.

• Sometimes, control is exacerbated, as in the cases of Berlusconi in Italy in the 1994-2004 period (Bosetti, 2007),

• and of Spain during the Aznar government in 1996-2004 (Campo Vidal, 2008).

Strictly Political…

• In this case, gatekeeping is strictly political

• and caters to the interests of: – either the government – or a political party in government – or a particular politician.

(2)

The second filter is the one imposed by corporate ownership and

leadership in terms of editorial criteria

usually corresponding with their business interests rather than their ideological preferences.

<> Partisan

• This is to be differentiated from the practice of partisan journalism

• that does not preclude access of opposed political views, since this is the salt and pepper of their infotainment appeal.

Incompatibility

• In some cases, there is a direct editorial decision to block access to political views or political actors

• because they are incompatible with business media strategies.

Radical Banned » Audience

• In fact, most radical political critiques in democratic societies are banned from the mainstream media

• because they are considered to be out of touch with the country, and thus with the interests of the audience.

Radical Access » then excluded

• Only by generating news (e.g. colorful demonstrations, preferably turned violent by police action) can the radicals break through the media barrier.

• Of course, this marginalizes them further as they are assimilated to violence and hooliganism, a second order level of political exclusion from the public mind.

The Message Is The Medium: Media Politics And

Informational Politics.

Media Politics

• The key features of media politics are: – personalization of politics, – electoral campaigns focused on the use of

media, – and daily processing of political information

through the practice of spin.

Defining Spin

• spin as “the activity of politicians, usually through consultants, consisting at communicating matters in a form that favors their interests, while looking to inflict damage to the opponent”

Media Pundits too…

• I would also include the practice of spin by media pundits ,

• who play diverse roles in formatting political information according to their specific biases.

Goal? To win

• The goal of media politics, as with all politics, is to win and to hold onto the spoils of victory for as long as possible.

This does not mean that the content of politics is indifferent to

political actors.

<Break>

• But, as I was repeatedly reminded in personal conversations with political leaders around the world, reaching a power position is the prerequisite to enact any policy proposal.

</Break>

Simple Message

• Thus, the message to citizens is simple :

• support this candidate and reject his/her opponents

• (or vice versa: reject her opponents more vehemently than you support her candidacy – a more frequent instance in contemporary politics).

The MESSAGE

• Because the message is clear and simple, and embodied in one person, the communication process is constructed around this message.

Message is The medium

• In this sense, the message is the medium because formats and platforms of communication, in their diversity,

• will be selected in terms of their effectiveness in supporting this specific message, namely a given politician.

Pol. Science + Comm. Psicology

• The development of the tools of political science and communication psychology has led to the diffusion of a new form of professionalized political practice, what I call informational politics.

informational politics

Designing the Message: Political Think Tanks

Informational Politics begins…

• articulation of messages depending on the interests and values of the socio-political coalition constructed around specific political actors.

• The content and format of political projects is increasingly decided with the help of think tanks…

Think Tanks

• that bring together experts, academics, political strategists and media consultants in the conduct of politics and policy-making.

Think tanks?

• Tools– The use of data bases, – targeted messaging, – and polling tracking

• Context– must be understood within the context of a

broader perspective that took hold in America three decades ago, but diffused later to most of the world.

Think Tanks? (2)

• the formation of strategic, political think tanks responsible for: – analyzing trends, – understanding people’s cognitive

mechanisms, – and applying the results of their studies to

devise efficient tactics to…

Think tanks? (3)

– to win elections, – hold office – and win major policy battles, such as health

care policy, energy policy or abortion rights in America, or the reform of the welfare state in Britain.

Liberal vs. Conservative

• Thus, while liberal and independent think tanks are mainly engaged in policy analysis, following their belief in rational politics,

• the conservative think tanks are primarily oriented towards shaping minds by the means of media politics.

Targeting the Message: Profiling Citizens

Phase 2

• Once the policies and political strategies are formulated

• media politics goes into a new phase of operation

Phase 2 Media Politics

• the identification of – values, – beliefs, – attitudes, – social behavior, and political behavior

(including voting patterns)

• for segments of the population identified by their demographics and spatial distribution.

Message Cloning

• Thus, the message is unique: the politician.

• The incarnations of the candidate in different formats vary with the target population.

Tools

• t is the combination of polling and social data analysis

• that provides interpretation of the trends in real time and enhances the chance to modify unfavorable evolution

• by acting on latent attitudes through new rounds of targeted messages differentiated for each social category.

Suggestion

• To follow Karl Rove’s career as a political operative provides a window into the evolution of political practice in the early years of the Information Age.

The Dark Side

• There is a darker side to informational politics

• This is the search for information damaging to political opponents. It is a highly elaborated activity, labeled in the trade as “opposition research” (Marks, 2007).

The Money Trail

Expensive Politics

• Informational politics is expensive and in most countries cannot be supported by the regular financing of political organizations.

• Most spending is linked to political campaigns, and particularly to paid television advertising in countries like the United States, where this is the main channel for candidates to communicate directly to the voters.

Seats in Dollars

• Skyrocketing campaign costs are not limited to presidential candidates.

• In the U.S., in 2004, the cost of winning a seat in the Senate was, on average, $7 million, and a seat in the House was $ 1 million, an eleven-fold increase since 1976 (Bergo, 2006).

Parties Extra Cash?

• However, why do the parties need to access this extra cash outside the legal system?

• Because they need to spend the funds flexibly and confidentially.

Flexibly

• Flexibly, because to be innovative in politics requires spending in areas and projects that escape the definition of political activity in the strict regulatory terms of electoral commissions.

Confidentially

• Confidentially, because some decisive political operations outside the campaign periods (e.g., illegal fundraising, spying, fabricating scandals against the opponent, bribing journalists, paying blackmails, and the like) require substantial underground funding.

Personal Wellbeing

• Furthermore, the more the use of funds is discretionary, the greater the number of opportunities to take a personal cut for political intermediaries in and around the party and its leadership.

Spinning the News

Continuous Decision Making

• People make their decisions, including their political decisions,

• on the basis of images and information

• that, by and large, are processed through the media, including the Internet.

• This is a continuing process.

News Media = Media Politics

• Therefore, the politics of news media is the most significant form of media politics.

• Political strategies aim primarily at setting the agenda, framing and priming information in the news media.

Italy and America

• Analyzing the evolution of Italian television news over the last two decades, Bosetti finds similarities between Italy and the United States in some of the key features of news reporting: – personalization, – dramatization, – fragmentation of information, – and solicitation of a predominant schema constructed

around the notion of order versus disorder.

Even you Public Service…

• Not even the poster child of public service television, the BBC, could escape the spinning schemes of the Blair Government

The Moment of Untruth: Electoral Campaigns

Electoral Campaigns

• Electoral campaigns are the key instances enabling access to institutional power positions by appealing to the citizens’ formal delegation of power by the means of their vote.

They are the wheels of democracy.

However…

• However, elections are specific moments of political life that operate on the basis of the day-to-day construction of meaning that structures the interests and values of citizens.

Act

• Election campaigns act on the predispositions of the voters by:– activating or deactivating the processes of

emotion and cognition , – with the purpose of achieving the goals of the

campaign

<Short Break>

Regardless of ideology and rhetoric in the political discourse, only one thing matters for political

parties and candidates in campaigning: winning.

</Short Break>

Implies?

• This implies that policy proposals have to be constructed as political messages seeking to obtain the support of the electorate.

Candidates and Parties

• Candidates and parties position themselves in the polity of the country and relate to the interests and values of their supporters, – so their political platforms must be credible – in terms of the cognitive congruence

between who the candidate is and what her message is.

But…wider variation

• Yet, the margins of variation between the history of parties and candidates and their programs for a given election have widened over time because:– of the need to adjust the political message to

a diverse and increasingly volatile electorate.

Campaign Strategy

Indeed, most campaigns use a three-pronged strategy.

First

• First, they try to secure their historical base of support, the party loyals.

• In most countries, feelings for a given party or political tradition constitute one of they key factors in determining voting behavior.

Therefore…past/innovation

• Therefore, a candidate cannot depart excessively from the policy positions that were fundamental in establishing the party’s influence in the past

• without eroding the much needed support from the core constituencies, such as women’s choice in abortion policies for the left or tax cuts for the right.

Second

• The second component of a successful strategy is to demobilize or confuse the core constituency of the opponent,

• particularly by pinpointing his flaws, his wrongdoing, or the contradiction between the political opponent and the values of his potential voters, e.g. his support for gay rights in a homophobic context.

Third

• Then comes the third and most decisive strategic move: to win the support of the independents and undecided.

• This is the group that determines the election results, provided that the core constituency is mobilized.

Center?

• This does not mean that elections are won by courting the center of the political spectrum.

• Sometimes, going left or right from the center is what convinces people who were on the sidelines because they did not connect with the message of any candidate.

Independents

• The critical matter in winning the support of independents is to heighten their scrutiny of the candidates.

• Thus, independents have been shown to be particularly sensitive to negative messages

Loyalties Independence

• Since they do not have pre-established loyalties, they tend to mobilize against the potential negative consequences of electing one given candidate.

Negative Messages

• This explains the significance of negative messages, through the media or political advertising, in shaping elections.

The Professionalization of Political Campaigns

Campaign Infrastructure

• To enact these basic strategies, candidates and parties must first build a campaign infrastructure.

• Electoral politics is now a highly professionalized activity with high entry barriers for any challenger

• which explains why maverick candidates must usually operate within the limits of established party politics.

The Infrastructure

• The infrastructure starts with financial solvency:

• without sufficient funding there is no credible campaign,

• to the point that the level of funding for candidates is one of the key criteria for electability

Internet

• An increasingly important dimension of political campaigning is the use of the Internet to manage the campaign and relate to supporters.

People Reliability

• People rely on the media for most of their political information

• Dancing with the media requires adapting to their language and format

• It is this interaction between mainstream media and the Internet that characterizes media politics in the digital age.

Staging Political Choice: Electoral Debates

Decisive?

• Televised political debates are less decisive than people think

Why?

• Typically, these debates consolidate people’s predispositions and opinions.

Winner vs. Persuasion

• This is why the debate winners are often the election winners.

• People are more likely to side with a winner as their preferred candidate.

• Rather than voting for the candidate who debated more persuasively.

Debates Effects

• There is however a potential significant effect of political debates: – making mistakes and, consequently, losing

support, – unless the candidate can use the error to her

advantage by using humor or inciting empathy among the viewers.

The Politics of Personality

The fundamental feature of media politics is the personalization of politics, and the key factor in

deciding the outcome of the campaign is the positive or negative projection of the candidate in the minds of

the voters.

License to Kill: Attack Politics

Personalization

• The personalization of politics has extraordinary consequences for campaign tactics.

• If the chances of a political option depend on the perceived qualities of a person, effective campaigning enhances the qualities of the candidate while casting a dark shadow on her opponent.

Testimony

• Stephen Marks, an American Republican consultant, ardently embraced opposition research as his professional specialty for over 12 years (1993-2006). He spent this time, in his own words, “digging dirt” to destroy the electoral chances of opponents of his clients; usually democratic candidates, but also Republicans during primary elections. After some personal and moral fatigue he revealed his tactics, and those of his profession, in his remarkable Confessions of a Political Hitman: My Secret Life of Scandal, Corruption, Hypocrisy and Dirty Attacks that Decide Who Gets Elected (and Who Doesn’t) (Marks, 2007).

Testimony II

• Hillary Clinton endlessly repeated in her 2008 presidential primary campaign, “if you cannot stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

Opposition Research

• Halfway between detective work, legal blackmailing, and political marketing, the profession has become increasingly popular and sought after, first in America, and then around the world, with some of its pros becoming legendary figures.

THE POLITICS OF SCANDAL

What is a Scandal?

• “Scandals are struggles over symbolic power in which reputation and trust are at stake” (Thompson, 2000: 245).

When? AC…- DC…?

• This is to say that well before the advent of the network society, scandal politics was a critical feature in determining power relationships and institutional change.

• Indeed, anywhere we look into the history of societies around the world, the politics of scandal is a more rooted and typical form of power struggle than the conduct of orderly political competition as per the rules of the state.

Why is scandal politics so prevalent?

Where does it come from?

Is it different from the past in its frequency and in its effect on

political life? And Why?

Scandal politics is not the same as political corruption• Political corruption, understood as the

unlawful selling of services by politicians and officials in exchange for personal or party benefits (or both), is a standard feature of political systems throughout history.

Scandal politics is not the same as political corruption• Political scandals include other alleged

wrong doings, such as improper sexual activities, as per the norms of a given society.

• However, most analysts seem to agree that the use of scandals in politics is on the rise…

Trends

• Several trends concur in placing scandals at the heart of political life in countries around the world:

– the transformation of media; – the transformation of politics; – and the specificity of media politics.

Digital Scandals

• Concerning the media, news as infotainment favors stories of scandal as prime material to attract the audience.

24hours News

• This is particularly significant with the advent of the 24 hours news cycle, with relentless “breaking news” to feed the appetite for sensationalism and novelty

Scandal Politics and the Transformation of Politics

Transformation

• The centrality of scandals is also a function of the transformation of politics.

• Tumber considers the weakening of party identification and the decline of partisanship to be the source of the rise of scandal politics.

•

Culture of promotionalism

• with a corresponding rise in a “culture of promotionalism” in which:– politicians, – governments, – and corporations

• promote their own interests over the interests of the collective

Culture of the Center

• Analysts point to the fact that political competition is marked by the struggle to occupy the center of the electorate’s political spectrum in terms of the perceived message.

Ideological contrasts

• Thus downplaying ideological contrasts, as parties and candidates, having secured their core supporters, strive to adopt their opponents’ themes and positions to lure away potential voters.

Personal vs. Programs

• From there follows a tendency for citizens to rely more on the personal characteristics of the leaders and the honesty of their parties than on their programs and statements

Scandals as Better News

• Thus, politicians involved in scandals make for better news because these scandals undermine their entitlement to the delegation of power from citizens

Scandal Politics and Media Politics

Ultimate Goal

• Since the most effective messages are negative messages,

• and since character assassination is the most definitive form of negativity,

• the destruction of a political leader by leaking, fabricating, formatting, and propagating scandalous behavior that can be attributed to him/ her, be it personally or by association,

• is the ultimate goal of scandal politics.

Effective?

• However, are scandals always as effective as their promoters wish them to be?

• The evidence on the matter is inconclusive if by effective we mean the defeat of a political leader, party or government.