Ideology in the age of mediatised politics: from ‘belief systems’ to the re-contextualizing principle of discourse

Kissas, Angelos (2017) Ideology in the age of mediatised politics: from ‘belief systems’ to the re-contextualizing principle of discourse. Journal of Political Ideologies, 22 (2). pp. 197-215. ISSN 1356-9317

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Abstract

Mediatized politics is often associated with a metamorphosis of politics; a shift from philosophical fermentations to effective media campaigning and from rational argumentation to personal appeals, sound-bites and dramatic effects. The question this article raises is whether this alleged metamorphosis allows some space for ideology to emerge and play any role in contemporary politics and, if so, what the implications for the study of political ideology in the age of mediatization are? As I will argue, to study ideology in the context of mediatized politics is not to make big claims about the survival or demise of some ‘grand’ belief systems but to analytically address the potential of political discourse, as it is articulated through several media genres within specific socio-political contexts, to re-contextualize symbolisms from the past serving the effective exercise of political power in the present. I will further illustrate this attempted revisionism by briefly examining three televised political advertisements, which I take as an example of mediatized politics, by the American Democratic Party for the 2008 presidential election in the US, by the British Conservative party for the 2010 general election in the UK and by the Panhellenic Socialist Movement for the 2009 parliamentary election in Greece, respectively.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cjpi20/current
Additional Information:	© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
Divisions:	Media and Communications
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HE Transportation and Communications J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
Date Deposited:	15 May 2017 15:42
Last Modified:	12 Dec 2024 01:28
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/76952

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