Panel Report: Mediated Political Actors

Chair: Nico Carpentier, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium


Speakers:

Ilja Tomanić Trivundža, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Vlastimil Nečas and Lenka Vochocová, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic
Norbert Merkovity, University of Szeged, Hungary
Denisa Kasl Kollmannová, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic
Jiří Kraus, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic

People see politicians through their picture in media. But media display politicians in different ways and politicians have their own marketers and PR. Panelist show their analysis about political actors and their portrayl in news.

Ilja Tomanić Trivundža with his paper "Visual framing and differential portrayl of political actors in international news" speaks about differences in displaying politicians in news in various countries. The main theme of his presentation is election. "Elections are routine, standartised and comparable event," he explains. Another adventage in research is that there is predictable „coreography“, limited set of motifs.
Press photographs can act as potent vehicles for visualisation and dramatization of physical and social distance among nations and nation-states. This paper compares different portrayl of political representatives and political processes. And it anazyles three interlaced types of visual (meta) frames – icons, iconophilia and iconoclasm. Ilja Tomanić Trivundža projects pictures from media and underlines that "Some politicians are shown in passive or submisive mode which indicates a lower level of social and symbolic status of political actors."

A little bit different was research of Vlastimil Nečas and Lenka Vochocová. They were focused on Czech politicians and Czech foreign policy in 2005 and 2011. They concentrated mainly on the debate on euroconstitution and on the role of Czech politicians in this topic. They found out that "President Václav Klaus is often a topic". And the debate in media? "It is not about the issues, it is not about the European union, it is only about conflicts between Czech political parties," Nečas says. And what is the conclusion on analysis of media? There is overlapping agenda and thematic homogeneity. And there are strong tendences to strong personalization. EU is described as a passive, anonymous and distant entity. Vochocová added that "Strong personalization and negativity is typical."

Norbert Merkovity decided to do research among the MPs in Hungary, Canada and Ireland. People know politicians only through media, but... What if citizens want to bypass the media? What if they want to use two-way communication tool to contact their MPs? In this case citizens wil presumably write to the Facebook wall of their representatives or they will send an e-mail hoping for an answer. So he wrote e-mails to all MPs and waited for an answer for 2 weeks.
Researchers sent 307 e-mails in Hungary and recieved 106 answers. In Canada, they sent 307 and reciever 24 answers. And conclusion? In Hungary: opposition were more willing to answer; in Canada: second most/least answers from the governing party; in Ireland: most answers from the larger governing party. And what are the consequences for politicians? The use of the new information and communication technologies is an expectation from today's politicians.

Denisa Kasl Kollmannová then speaks about "Gaining the media coverage through reputation management and PR of private life issues in political communication on the example of Czech politician Jiří Paroubek". Paroubek is Czech politician, he was a Prime Minister and citizens know him very well - some of them like him, some of them hate him. He used strong marketing and PR tools and he also used his two wife - first of them, Zuzana, and second - Petra. "Mediated private life of politicians became a soap-opera," underlines Denisa Kasl Kollmannová. "Politicians become intimate strangers or distant heroes." Her presentation about Jiří Paroubek and media pictures of his wifes is very funny and interesting - mainly for Czech who know it.