What is Political Communication?

Week 1: What is Political Communication  

Political Communication is everywhere. It is something that is never really thought about but is very necessary in order for this country to run the way it does. Political communication has many different definitions and many different meanings just simply depending on who you ask. To me political communication is the interactions between the government and its citizens as well as the process of how they interact with one another through the media. While there are different political parties and different political beliefs there is one common thing they share, and that is the way in which they communicate to the citizens. Politics has most definitely evolved over the years with the help of the media and press.

Political Communication is used in many ways. Candidates running in elections and politicians use the media as a way to disseminate whatever message or idea they want to their target audience to get. The press use political communication as a way of informing viewers/listeners of what is going on in politics and they do this using live broadcast, radio shows, web pages and even newspaper articles.  The public mostly use the media as a way of obtaining political information about campaigns and politics in general.

Throughout the 2016 campaign season the candidates have been exhibiting and using to their advantage political communication in the media. Donald Trump along with all of the other candidates during this election season have been holding campaign rallies in many states throughout the country in order to peek interests of potential voters. These rallies get picked up by the press and are then spread all over media outlets so that almost anyone can see them. Just by simply typing in “Trump” into the search bar on google brings up campaign rally videos from Grand Rapids, Fort Dodge and Las Vegas.

Candidates such as Hilary Clinton are using political communication by going to social media outlets such as Twitter to express certain views to her audience and even to communicate with other candidates. On Twitter Clinton has a better chance of reaching the younger demographics and communicating with them there. She also has an easy way to see what is “trending” on Twitter and can cater her political communication pitches to that.