Media Talk and Political Elections in Europe and America

This book makes an important contribution to the study of political communication. Its chapters provide a detailed analysis of forms of media talk associated with contemporary political elections. The approach is derived from the study of broadcast media talk, which extends here to political communication on the Internet. Key topics include: changing forms of political interview, televised political debates (held in the UK for the first time in 2010), the use of multimedia in promotional discourse, and uses of the Internet to engage with voters (an approach used successfully in the Obama presidential campaigns of 2008 and 2012). In addition to chapters from the UK and USA, there are also contributions from Greece, Spain, Sweden and Austria. Accordingly this book breaks new ground, not only in its coverage of the way politics is communicated to citizens, but also its recognition that in the modern world political culture is increasingly globalised, requiring an international critical perspective.

Andrew Tolson is Professor of Media and Communication at De Montfort University, UK. His research interests are in forms of television news and political communication, and TV talk shows.

Mats Ekstrom is Professor of Media and Communication at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. His research is mainly focused on journalism, media talk and discourse, and the relations between journalism and politics.