Talking Politics: How Politicians and the Media Construct and Shape Public Discourse and Public Opinion

This panel welcomes theoretical and/or empirical studies related to political elite and media discourse, broadly defined, in cross-national, cross-cultural contexts, and their effect on the mass public. This panel welcomes papers that examine how the rhetoric of politicians and journalists affects the nature of public debates and attention. Papers might cover politicians’ skills and effectiveness in parliamentary debates, characteristics and effects of political interviews, discourse used during political campaigns, social media and the rise of radical right populism, dynamics of political incivility on social media, political debasement, political advertising, and processes and effects of mediated communication in relation to political news. All submitted research proposals should be clearly grounded in theory and methodology.