Mass-Media and Political Communication Credibility

• Author: Coman, C. - Pascu, M.
• Position: Sociology and Communication Department, Transilvania University of Brasov - Ph.D. in Sociology, University of Bucharest
• Pages: 287-290

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 6 (55) No. 2 - 2013

MASS-MEDIA AND POLITICAL

COMMUNICATION CREDIBILITY

C. COMAN1 M. PASCU

2

Abstract: The problem of new sources of credibility and implicitly the

campaign’s problem become very important for political parties and for their

candidates who want to know how to assign their resources during the

campaign. This would help the campaign staff to target the messages and the

mass media more efficiently. Such knowledge also provides information

about the orientation of adequate messages to certain groups of electors

through mass media. Campaign organization needs this knowledge, in this

era of market segmentation and of targeted and extended promotion, in order

to increase their chances and to use their resources better.

Key words: electoral field, mediated public sphere, campaigns.

1 Sociology and Communication Department, Transilvania University of Braşov.

2 Ph.D. in Sociology, University of Bucharest.

1. Introduction

In our country the electoral studies have

had a shorter history then democracy itself.

This produces a permanent suspicion even

if politicians have learnt more or less to

deal with it, to accept it and to use it in the

process of political communication. What I

want to reveal in this article is their real

potential regarding the analysis of the

voting behavior. The scientific character

gives visible profits and leads to the

calibration and to the efficiency of the

election campaign.

2. Problem Formulation

The election campaign establishes a

specific competition regime that is, I think,

permanent. But we can’t talk about what

happens during elections without discussing

the period between elections, too.

Political actors refer to one another from

competing positions in a temporized and

organized space that is legally regulated

concerning its goals, rhythm and

legitimacy.

When evaluating the election campaign

we shouldn’t refer only to the immediate

results, we also have to define the electoral

situation as a result of compositional

effects which depends on the actor’s

objectives because even if the goal is to

win, not all the participants want this.

Therefore the election campaign has to be

analyzed in communicational terms as the

interaction of the strategically oriented

interpretations regarding the political

situation.

In Romania there are three different

elections: local, general and presidential

elections. The election campaigns are

divided in two types: individual election

campaigns that are organized for a person

who has to be elected – president, senator,

deputy or major and collective elections

organized for a political structure.

Concerning its process, the election

campaign represents the formal context in

which the electoral communication