What is Political Communication

Political communication is the dissemination of information related to politics in the form of TV internet, radio, billboards, rallies and conversation. TV seems to be the most used medium with candidates spending millions of dollars on campaign ads. This is the central way that politicians and political parties have communicated with the American public in the past. Who gets media attention has always been a bone of contention between candidates. Ron Paul complained of a supposed media blackout and Jim Webb yelled at Anderson Cooper when he claimed he wasn’t getting the talking time other democratic candidates were. Radio is a somewhat neglected form of communication, so are billboards and signs but I’ve never been convinced that I should vote for someone by seeing a “vote for ____” on a bumper sticker.

The most effective and most important form of political communication is individual conversation. I have converted many members of my family who were formerly Reaganesque Democrats to support Ron Paul in 2008/2012 and Sanders in 2016. I also converted many of my friends to see the world in terms of the establishment vs the opposition rather than the right vs the left. If I can convince one person, and they convince one person and so on then my side will when. In my experience people are not convinced by a flier that changed their lives. People change sides when a friend or family member tells them to reconsider the way they see things. This is what people don’t understand about political communication. There is macro political communication and micro.