Images of Politics . History and Development of Political Communication on Television

International conference - Amsterdam - October 23, 24 and 25, 1997

Organised by the Netherlands Audiovisual Archive - Amsterdam (Research Department), in association with the Universiteit van Amsterdam (Departments of Communication Science and Political Science) and the Documentation Centre Dutch Political Parties (University of Groningen).

An international conference on the changing role of television in political communication. The central question is whether changes in media and politics have led to a different, more entertainment focused 'media logic', rightly or wrongly referred to as 'americanization'. The conference will focus on both controlled publicity (party political broadcasts and political 'spots', media strategies of political parties, political marketing) and on free publicity (news, talkshows, media-political interaction). Although the main focus will be on television, the use of new media such as the Internet is also of interest. The conference combines historical research with analysis of recent developments, in order to identify and evaluate new trends in political communication. Recent elections in the US and UK will be a comparative starting point. Next to a range of workshops, keynote speakers will address and visually illustrate the various topics. Participants come from both sides of the Atlantic, and it is expected that the supposed convergence between the US and Europe in political communication will be a recurrent theme.

Screenings

Audiovisual materials - the images and sounds themselves - are an important feature of the conference. It will begin with a screening day, with audiovisual presentations that give an impression of the development of political communication in different countries. The lectures as well will be illustrated by videoclips. It will be a unique opportunity to see rare audiovisual footage from party political broadcasts, propaganda films and different examples of free publicity.

Keynote addresses Two keynote speakers will address the main themes of the conference:

• Dennis Kavanagh, Professor and Head of the Department of Politics and Communications (University of Liverpool).
  • Together with David Butler he has co-authored the series of Nuffield College studies of British General Elections. The most recent is The British General Election of 1997, to be published in November 1997. His most recent work on parties and elections is Election campaigning. The marketing of politics (1995).
• Holli A. Semetko, Professor and Chair of Audience and Public Opinion Research in the Faculty of Political and Social-Cultural Sciences (Universiteit van Amsterdam, UvA).
  • A US citizen, Semetko joined the UvA in 1995. Her most recent book, Germany's Unity Election: Voters and the Media (1994), is co-authored with Klaus Schoenbach. Together with Jay Blumler, Michael Gurevitch and David Weaver she co-authored The Formation of Campaign Agendas: a comparative analysis of party and media roles in recent American and British elections (1991). She has published widely on news media, elections and public opinion and is currently writing a book on television news and elections based on her studies of US, German, Spanish and British electoral communication.

Sessions

• Americanization: journalistic rhetoric or political reality?
• The way political parties approached and adapted to the new television age
• Political marketing and media strategies
• Developments in party political broadcasts and political 'spots'
• Changing relations between journalists and politicians
• Media and politics in emerging democracies
• The 'infotainment' of politics
• The future: the emergence of an 'electronic democracy'?
• Special session: The 1998 Dutch General Elections and the use of the Internet
• Day closing sessions that combine viewpoints from practitioners and academics.

Information

For information on registration and accommodation:

More information will be available on Internet:

http://www.uva.nl/aktueel/congres

For further details on the programme:

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