Political communication filling the gap

By Prof Dr. Sohail Ansari

Conceived and worded by Prof DR Sohail Ansari (originality of concepts and originality of words).

He believes that there can never be a zero scope for improvement and appreciates criticism if it is not for the sake of criticism.

·         “Communication in pre-industrial societies was predominantly personal and oral in direct, face-to-face interactions in place of worship, where ritual and sermons organized spiritual life; in courts and chambers, where officials held audiences; and in homes and communities, where the roots of cultural life were sunk deep in the soil of everyday social interactions. Communication___ the transmission of ideas, feelings, attitudes, and experiences__ was not meditated by technologies of communication. However, as is the case today, communication flows were superintended by dominant institutions. Lines of authority and personnel contact were well delineated, and ruling interests used whatever means lay at their disposal to transmit the versions of custom, belief, superstition, law, and power that suited them best. What distinguishes pre-industrial times from our own is that contact with social authority occurred through personal intermediaries. In modern society, direct and personal interaction is no longer the exclusive form of communication; it is now supplanted by interactions mediated by new technologies”(1). 

    

In pre-industrial era, same people at the same place confronted and overcame same problems with the help of same authority figure. Ironically, spatial concentration of the population led to decreasing levels of interpersonal contact; and contact with one who claimed to have key to problems of urban life had to be built. The political communication very soon began to fill the gap with messages that related peace and happiness to one particular person/party; and recreated such life in ads that featured every imagined desire of voters. In urban populations, which are concrete manifestations of the anonymity inherent in the concept of ‘people,’ meditated communication gained a human face through the leader people could recourse to.

The change from a rural to a predominantly urban population, create ‘anonymity,’ mobility, and a widening distance from historical and cultural roots and that prepared the ground for new patterns of political communication. The rapid growth of two print forms of mediated communication, newspapers and magazines, offered the means of reaching a mass audience; thus transforming political communication into a bridge between commoner and leaders. Thus, while the evolution of the print media was considered one of the foundations of emerging political democracy; political communication was linked to the maintenance and growth of the new political culture. It seems almost inconceivable that we could have industrial democracy without of the political communication. Political communication through the rise of mediated communication has had a fundamental impact on society as a whole. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the components of political communication ad become the key to the operation of the election campaign.

1          Kline,  ‘Meditated Communication’ New York, Macmillan, 1990, P91