Lost politic, transformed politic, settled politic? Media’s impact theories

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a substantial increase in the literature on the relationship between politics and mass media, mainly in discrete topic areas such as the impact of mass media on electoral behaviour, the emergence of new forms of political communication, or media political economy. This diverse literature has often focused on the ‘transformation’ of politics. There has been relatively little attempt to connect and compare the different approaches. Looking at the theoretical differences in the new literature on media and politics reveals three perspectives – pluralist, constructivist, and structuralist.