Post on 06-Feb-2023
Political Communication, the Media & the “Creation” of a Leader
Eleni Kioumi
MA in Communication Policy Studies – City University London, UK Member of the board and representative of the Public Relations
Association of Northern Greece Smirnis 14, 55236 Panorama Thessaloniki
Tel. +30 2310 345983Fax. +30 2310 341835
Email: elenikioumi@gmail.com, kioumiel@otenet.gr
Refereed paper presented to the 4th International Political Marketing Conference
Sinaia, Romania19 April – 21 April 2007
Eleni Kioumi: Political Communication, the Media & the “Creation” of aLeader
ABSTRACT. Political communication and political marketing
techniques are nowadays an important part of every
political campaign, in national or local level, in most
of the contemporary western democracies. The influence of
the public opinion is a primary goal of every political
communication campaign. Given the fact that the media are
the main source of information for the majority of the
public, they play a crucial role in most of the
campaigns, especially those in national level. In Greece
the use of political communication consultants has
developed radically the last few years, a fact that will
also be thoroughly presented.
[Keywords: political communication, political marketing,
media, Greek elections, media use in campaign periods,
political communication in Greece.]
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Introduction
Political communication is nowadays one of the most
crucial elements for politicians and political parties.
Political communication advisors play an important role
in the effective leadership activities of a modern
democratic country. It is a fact that most political
actors, in national or local level, consult on a
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permanent basis political communication companies, which
in turn develop strategies based on the person’s or
party’s needs. Given the rate of media penetration,
particularly television, their importance should be
obvious for political communication advisors.
The link between media and political communication
is much more evident during an election period, when all
the attention is focused on politicians, political
parties, their positions, and their actions. Generally,
though, apart from election periods, media are able to
promote, construct and even destroy the profile of a
leader and/or governmental policies.
Greece doesn’t seem to be an exception in either of
the cases suggested above. It seems that the role of the
media and political communication has in fact become more
crucial throughout the years.
At first, political communication was largely
connected by the public to the attraction of media
attention, publicity and advertising. Nowadays, most
election campaigns in Greece are planned in detail,
according to the principles of one, or segments of
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numerous, political marketing strategy. Furthermore, the
influence of political communication advisors has evolved
and is beginning to affect leadership activities.
Despite the fact that the role of political
communication consultants in leadership activities can be
characterised as highly controversial, it is unrealistic
to suggest that such phenomena can not be identified in
recent Greek administrations, national or local.
In this paper we will try to explain in what ways
political communication techniques, especially those that
involve media, are affecting political campaigns and the
creation of the profile of a leader. First, we shall
present the social environment of contemporary political
communication. Second, basic terms in political
communication and political marketing will be explained,
along with the presentation of techniques and strategies.
Third, the special role of the media will be determined
in relation to political communication and election
campaigns. Next, we will present the Greek phenomenon,
namely how and in what extend do political communication
advisors in Greece use the media. Finally, the case of a
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Greek politician and candidate in the local elections in
2006 will highlight recent evolutions in the field of
political communication in local elections in Greece.
The social environment of contemporary political
communication
Political communication can not be characterised as
a recent phenomenon. Politicians around the world have
always had a type of political communication consultant,
in the form of someone trustful to give them advices and
make suggestions. Even though main characteristics and
techniques have changed radically, the fact is that
political communication has always been there. The
political communication consultant of our time may be
totally different from a consultant from another age, but
his importance could be considered higher.
The social, technological, economic, political
changes have very much affected the practice of political
communication. According to Blumler and Kavanagh (1999)
recent social trends, such as modernization – social
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fragmentation and the emergence of identity politics;
individualization – emphasis on the personal needs and reduced
interest for politics; secularization – decreased status of
politicians and party loyalty; economization – increased
power of economic factors that now may influence the
political agenda and other social areas; aestheticization –
people are more preoccupied with image, fashion and
style; rationalization – everything is based on research and
the use of techniques; and “mediatization” – increased
influence of the media – have a strong effect on
political communication.
Another key notion of contemporary political
communication and election campaigning that question many
scholars (Kavanagh, 1995, Negrine, 1996, Swanson and
Mancini, 1996, Negrine and Papathanassopoulos, 1996,
Blumler and Gurevitch, 2001) is “Americanization”, which
supports the idea of a leading country, based on the fact
that most political communication strategies originate in
the US. The particular notion may not be quite new, but
“it has gained greater currency as the mass media, and
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television in particular, have moved to centre stage in
social and political life”, (Negrine, 1996, p.149).
For Blumler and Gurevitch (2001, p.380), the notion
“Americanization” is globalization’s “junior brother”.
Swanson and Mancini (1996, p.4) define the term based on
the hypothesis that “campaigning in democracies around
the world is becoming more and more Americanized as
candidates, political parties, and news media take cues
from their counterparts in the United States. Many
campaign methods and practices that have been adopted by
other countries developed first in the United States, so
Americanization suggests itself as an easy
characterization of this pattern of innovation. The
appropriateness of the term is contested, however, by
some who argue that surface similarities obscure
important national adaptations and variations”.
It is a fact that there are similarities in the
political communication practices in the countries that
they are used. We may also stress that most of the
practices first appear and develop in the US. All these,
of course, do not imply that we are facing a complete
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imitation of American practices. The cultural, political
and legal differences between the countries lead to the
adaptation of practices according to each country’s
characteristics. Campaigning practices may present
similarities but they couldn’t be exactly the same.
(Blumler and Gurevitch, 2001)
As a general comment we will state that the notion
of Americanization can not fully describe or explain the
changes in the field of political communication. In fact,
scholars tend to discard this notion as highly
controversial and oversimplified. For instance,
Plasser’s, Sheucher’s and Senft’s (1999) research tries
to examine whether there is a European style of political
marketing and if so, how it has evolved. Probably, the
most important similarity is the actual use of political
communication and political marketing in every election
campaign in most of the developed and developing
countries. Still, the techniques and practices are
employed according to the special characteristics and
needs of each country.
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Discarding the notion of Americanization, Swanson
and Mancini (1996) suggest that the more general process
of “modernization”, which as we stated is also adopted by
Blumler and Kavanagh (1999), is primarily responsible for
the changes. Modernization is responsible for
developments and changes in the society that go far
beyond politics or communication. Consequently, “the more
advanced is the process of modernization in a country,
the more likely we are to find innovations in campaigning
being adopted and adapted”, (Swanson and Mancini, 1996,
p.6). Let us now see how modernization relates to
political communication.
A structural characteristic of modernization is the
increasing social complexity. By that we mean the intense
procedure of social differentiation and fragmentation and
the development of citizens’ identities. As we have
already seen the creation of social groups affects the
political process leading to the decrease of party
loyalty and the personalization of politics, with
emphasis on politicians rather than parties. Media, also,
play a significant role in this evolution. Especially
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television favours and promotes personalization, a fact
evident in every contemporary political advertisement.
(Mancini and Swanson, 1996) “Increasing social complexity
and its associated transformations in politics and
government and in the status of mass media produce what
amounts to an epochal change in all spheres of community
life that formerly performed political function” (Mancini
and Swanson, 1996, p.12)
The key elements of modern, or modernized,
campaigning, according to Swanson and Mancini (1996) are:
the personalization of politics; the “scientificization”
of politics, a term first used by Habermas in the 1960s
and is related to the increasing role of political
communication consultants, advertisers and technical
experts, which resulted to a candidate centered campaign;
the detachment of parties from citizens, and; the
autonomous structures of communication. Modern media are
more powerful, more independent and more focused on their
interests and needs. This makes politicians more depended
on them, since the media set the issues of the agenda.
Media are also responsible for the last element of modern
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campaigning, which is spectatorship instead of
citizenship. This is highly connected to infotainment and
the fact that contemporary campaigns are seen as
spectacles, rather than part of the political and
democratic process.
So far we have determined the social environment in
which political communication has evolved. This
environment seems to apply to most of the western
democracies, developed and developing. Next, we shall
present the ways the new environment affects political
communication and the techniques and strategies of
political marketing.
Political communication and political marketing:
Techniques & Strategies
Political communication, a “purposeful communication
about politics” according to McNair (2003, p.4), and
political marketing techniques and strategies have
experienced several evolutions throughout the years and
given the social changes.
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According to Blumler and Kavanagh (1999, p.213)
political communication is now at its Third Age. This new
age is still emerging and “is marked by the proliferation
of the main means of communication, media abundance,
ubiquity, reach, and celebrity”. The multiplication of
television channels and radio stations – with cable and
satellite technology, and the still evolving digitization
of the signal – as well as the multiplication of
television and radio sets in houses and cars made it
possible that people constantly receive vast information.
Computers and the Internet made it even easier for the
circulation of ideas, political news and messages. Blogs
and social networks are a whole new platform for the
politicians and their advisors.
This new circumstances led to the emergence of a
more complicated political communication form.
Politicians and journalists were forced to keep up with
the continuous news creation, they had to comment on or
present. Blumler and Kavanagh (1999) distinguish five
trends that could reshape political communication during
this age.
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First is the Intensified Professionalization of Political
Advocacy. As we have already stated, politicians and
political parties become even more depended on political
communication professionals, mostly to manage the media
and avoid their constant pressure. In an era, where the
control of the media messages that will be delivered to
the audience is crucial and political actors try to
remain in public eye, we may easily adopt the notion of
the “permanent campaign”, which we will present in the
next chapter. (Blumler and Kavanagh, 1999, Nimmo, 1999)
Second, the new circumstances led to Increased
Competitive Pressures. Even though, in Europe the existence of
public television may partly ensure equal media
presentation for all subjects, the fact is that private
media seem to prefer programmes like talk shows and
tabloid news, rather than political conversations. The
emergence of “infotainment” has changed the way
politicians present themselves and their arguments.
(Blumler and Kavanagh, 1999)
All this resulted to the third trend, Anti-Elitist
Popularization and Populism. The public sphere is much more
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different than what it used to be. The language and the
presentation of news have been altered, so that they are
closer to the language and the experiences of everyday
people. This development had its own effect on political
communication, since messages should be adapted to what
ordinary people find interesting, engaging and
accessible. (Blumler and Kavanagh, 1999)
Fourth, Centrifugal Diversification is the result of the
multiplication of channels and the fragmentation of the
audience. Everyone has a chance to be heard. Politicians,
with the help of political communication consultants,
must be very careful on how, when, how often and where
they express their opinion. Political messages are very
carefully distributed and declared, and some times need
to be focused on a special group. (Blumler and Kavanagh,
1999)
Fifth and final, the Audience Reception of Politics is
utterly different than what it used to be. According to
what we have already presented, the media messages
regarding political issues, and not only, have
experienced multiple alterations. This of course changed
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the way the audience perceives political messages that
are now more negative, sensational and populistic.
(Blumler and Kavanagh, 1999)
Based on the above, we have tried to define
political communication and identify the main
characteristics that shape the form of political
communication in our age. We shall now come to the
presentation of key features of political marketing and
its strategies.
Many scholars (Kotler and Kotler, 1999, Scammel,
1995, Johansen, 2005) identify a close relation between
political marketing and marketing in the business field.
Businesses give out products and services and they take
money and costumer loyalty in return. In campaigns,
politicians give out promises, favours and policy
preferences in exchange for votes or contributions.
(Kotler and Kotler, 1999) Even though there are obvious
similarities between political and business marketing,
there are also many differences. Political marketing may
indeed apply techniques based on business marketing, but
there is always a political basis. (Scammel, 1995) In
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addition to that, in politics, characteristics such as
emotions, conflicts, beliefs and partisanship are highly
important, while they do not exist in the business field.
As we have seen before, today people seem to show limited
interest in politics and politicians, therefore political
marketing strategists examine ways and techniques to
attract the public’s attention. Politicians, with help
from their consultants, need to build an attractive image
for the voters and keep their attention with messages
that interest them. (Kotler and Kotler, 1999)
Media, as we have already stated, seem to be an
important part of our social environment and it is
obvious that they play an important role to every
political communication campaign and political marketing
strategy. We can determine that this is the case by
taking a glance at the strategies suggested by Kotler and
Kotler (1999) and Stamatis (2005), which are similar.
According to Kotler and Kotler (1999), there are
six stages in a political marketing strategy. First is
the Environmental Research. This stage is very important
since it sets the basis for the development of the
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strategy. In this phase we examine the state of the
economy, the mood, the demographics and the critical
concerns and issues of the electorate. Another
environmental factor is the “personality” or profile of
an electoral district. It is very important for the
politician to know all the characteristic of the
electorate and its environment in a district, so he is
always advised to invest money and time in this stage.
The second stage is the Internal and External
Assessment Analysis. It defines the candidate’s, the
campaign organization’s and the opponent’s strengths and
weaknesses. It also discovers the possible opportunities
and threats for a campaign or a candidate. Next, at the
third stage, comes the Strategic Marketing. At this
point, the different voter segments are identified and it
is determined which of these segments will be primarily
targeted. Additionally, the candidate is positioned in
relation to his opponent. According to this positioning
his strategist will then construct his image and the
concept of his campaign. This process will continue in
the fourth stage, Goal Setting and Campaign Strategy,
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where the personal style of the candidate is developed,
related to issues and policy preferences. Furthermore, a
set of messages is build and transmitted, based on the
politician’s image and the campaign’s philosophy. (Kotler
and Kotler, 1999)
The fifth stage, Communication, Distribution, and
Organization Plan, entails the use of marketing tools,
such as advertising and publicity. At this point, the
candidate decides upon issues relevant to fundraising,
media appearances, personal contacts and allocation of
his resources. Finally, at the sixth stage, Key Markets
and Outcomes, the candidate’s key markets, for example
the voters and the donors, are reached and his media
exposure and publicity are planned. (Kotler and Kotler,
1999) “In this final stage, the candidate and his or her
campaign organisation are focused on outcomes – the
number of messages necessary to mobilise voter turnout,
the number of votes needed in the various precincts of an
electoral district, and so on”, (Kotler and Kotler, 1999,
p.10).
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The plan proposed by Stamatis (2005), a Greek
political communication consultant is quite similar to
Kotler’s and Kotler’s (1999). He also suggests as a first
step, an environmental research, which will identify the
strengths, the weaknesses, the opportunities, the threats
and the problems for the completion of a successful
campaign. The next step is the creation of the image of
the political actor, the positioning and the allocation
of the campaign funds. The main goal is to attract the
attention, to create interest, to stimulate desire, to
convince and lastly, to act in favour of the political
actor. The third step is the formation of the messages
based on the preceding steps. At the fourth step the
timetable for every move is set and the budget is
decided. At the final and fifth step, there is the
quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the actions
taken.
One of the most crucial elements for a successful
political communication strategy is political advertising
in all of its forms. Political advertisements, as all
other advertisements, have a main purpose, which is to
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inform the public. During an election period, people are
called to make rational choices based on the information
given by journalists and advertisements. Political
advertising offers an idea about “who is standing and
what they are offering the citizenry in policy terms”,
(McNair, 2003, p.98). Additionally, negative advertising
is part of every contemporary political campaign and has
as its main purpose to undermine the opponent. It is
indicative that 30% to 50% of all political advertising
produced could be described as negative, especially in
the US. (Johnson-Cartee and Copeland, 1991) The case is
the same in the UK.
After the theoretical background of political
communication and political marketing we shall now
present the leading role of contemporary media.
The Media
So far we have several times underlined the
importance of contemporary media for the society, and
political communication, of course. The effects after the
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emergence of television and the wide spread of mass media
were obvious since the 1980s, at least. Scholars (Trent
and Friedenberg, 1983, Lang and Lang, 1984) identified
the power of contemporary media and its influence on
politics, a fact that was also recognised by most
academics studying political communication (Kavanagh,
1995, Negrine, 1996, Swanson and Mancini, 1996, Negrine
and Papathanassopoulos, 1996, Papathanassopoulos, 1999,
Blumler and Gurevitch, 2001, Chairetakis, 2002,
Demertzis, 2002, Palmer, 2002, Papathansopoulos, 2002).
Lang and Lang (1984, p.13) recognised, that “although
television could be used for elevating the political
consciousness of the public, many feared that politics
would now be marketed much like toothpaste”. Perhaps this
is not exactly the case, but it did show that technology
has very much affected the way campaigns are conducted.
The media abundance has affected politics in many
ways. Nowadays there is a wide range of information and
sources of information that enable citizens to choose the
information closer to their beliefs and needs. The
constant flow of information led to a frequent change of
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issues and themes that interest the public. Politicians
have to be well prepared in order to stay in public eye.
They have to work hard to maintain a certain image, from
their opinion on different issues till their clothes and
gestures. The formats in which political information and
issues are presented through the media are different than
what it used to be. This includes “the depth or detail of
presentation, the employment of tabloid and entertainment
styles, and the relative uses of narrative, analysis, and
ideology”, (Bennett and Entman, 2001, p.6). In addition
to these, there is a need for a balance in the political
messages between the social and the personal identity.
Finally, in this era, the way citizens engage with and
communicate their reactions to political messages they
have received from the media is far more direct and
interactive, especially after the emergence of new
information technologies, such as the Internet. (Bennett
and Entman, 2001)
The time when politicians had the power to control
the content of public, then, media is long gone. Today,
some media industries are international and more powerful
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than ever. Scholars tend to characterise contemporary
politics as mediated (Bennett and Entman, 2001), since
political communication techniques are partly, if not
principally, focused on the management of the media in
order to reach, inform and form public opinion, for
example on issues and policies. During an election period
the need to shape part of the media content is a primary
goal for the professional political communication
consultants. A political communication strategy is
considered to be successful when a candidate has enough
media attention, through advertising, but also news
coverage, and can still preserve the interest of the
public without becoming tiresome. Citizens these days
seem to have limited interest in policies and political
information, a situation that led to the evolution of
infotainment, which is informing with means borrowed from
entertainment. As a result political actors try to create
new ways to attract the public’s attention.
We have several times presented the key
characteristics of our time. Notions like the growing
professionalisation in the political communication field,
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the dominance of populistic politics, the multiplication
of media outlets and the constant information flow
through 24-hour television and radio channels and the
Internet, have been already introduced. “Modern elections
have become mass-media elections”, (Kavanagh, 1995,
p.39).
We have identified the key notions of our era
related to political communication and the media. Next,
we will see how all these have embodied in the Greek
reality.
Political Communication and the Media in Greece
i. Historical background
The political environment in Greece transformed
utterly after the political changeover in 1974 with the
elimination of the dictatorship, king’s Constantine
pieta, and the establishment of a constitutional
democracy. Nowadays, the Greek citizens elect a new
government every four years along with 300 parliamentary
representatives from all over the country, according to
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the population of each prefecture. (Greek Constitution)
After the 1980s the two largest political parties
claiming the office are PASOK (the Greek Socialist Party)
and Nea Dimokratia (New Democracy, the conservative
party). Other parties that usually elect representatives
are KKE, the Greek communist party, Synaspismos
(Coalescence), another left party, and recently LAOS, an
extreme conservative party.
Political communication also first appeared around
that time. (Demertzis, 2002) The politicians’ image was
ever since important. The two central political figures
of the first period on the re-established Greek democracy
were Constantine Karamanlis, leader of the conservative
party, and Andreas Papandreou, leader of the socialist
party. They were responsible for the foundation of New
Democracy and PASOK respectively. Karamanlis presented
the profile of the stable and traditional political
leader, while Papandreou represented change and reform.
These differences between the two politicians were
obvious from the way they addressed to the public till
their clothes. Characteristically, Karamanlis seemed
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unapproachable and preferred classic suits, while
Papandreou had a more popular profile and wore high
necked pullovers, jeans and hardly ever ties. In general,
the first was an icon for the old generation and the
latter a representative of the younger generation. Both
of them probably had some kind of political advisor. They
both had experience from the political situation in other
countries, and Papandreou in particular was familiar with
the political system in the US. Therefore we may easily
assume that they might have been partly influenced by
other political communication practices.
It is very difficult to determine when politicians
turned to political communication professionals. Most of
them have always had volunteers and supporters willing to
assist them in anyway. The application of political
communication techniques and political marketing
strategies by professionals is a phenomenon of the last
years. Political parties, and politicians in the capital,
acknowledged the use of political communication practices
much earlier than politicians from other smaller cities,
more likely due to the highest competition.
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Coming now to the media, the Greek television
market was a public monopoly until 1989, when the first
private channels appeared. Until then, newspapers had a
large influence to the citizens. The liberalisation and
privatisation of the media market and the end of the
state monopoly supposedly would ensure plurality and
information diversity. But, as it happened in most of the
other countries, in Greece the media are owned and
controlled by powerful businessmen that use them
according to their interests. The relationship between
media and politics in Greece has always been very close
and it will be presented in a following section. The
importance of the use of political communication became
even more essential due to the new media environment.
The changes in the media market and the
establishment of television as the leading medium in
Greece assisted in the growth of political communication
businesses. Political advertising, televised debates and
political talk-shows made it essential for politicians
and political parties to create and establish their image
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that would not conflict with the trends first presented
in television.
After these historical background information we
shall now present the current status of political
communication in Greece, with information provide by the
Greek political communication consultants, Mr. George
Flessas, Mr. Spiros Rizopoulos, Mr. George Stamatis and
Mr. Antonis Zairis.
ii. Current status: Media environment
As we have indicated several times political
communication in Greece is at a much earlier stage than
in other countries, such as the US and Britain. This fact
may be responsible for the confusion around the role and
the work of political communication consultants.
According to Mr. Flessas (04.07.2006), the last few years
large parties and well-known politicians prefer and
acknowledge the work of professional political
communication consultants. “People understand that there
is the right person for every job. When they don’t feel
well they go to a doctor. When they have a legal problem
or they need to make a contract they go to a lawyer. When
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they need a planned and organised political image they
should address to a professional political communication
consultant” (George Flessas, 04.07.2006).
Let us next examine the close relationship between
politics, and politicians in particular, with the Greek
media. Media owners are considered to be the most
influential people now in Greece. It is indicative that
most Greek media owners are principally successful in
other fields. For instance, Ch. Mpompolas, one of the co-
owners of the Mega Channel and one newspaper, has a
constructing business and V. Vardinogiannis, another co-
owner of the same station, has a large shipping company
and is involved in several other companies. The owner of
ANT1 television channel and radio stations, M. Kyriakou,
has also a shipping company, a record firm and is
involved in other businesses and organisations. Finally,
D. Kontominas, the owner of Alpha channel, is also the
owner of a large insurance company and has interests in
other companies. And these are the largest national
television channels in Greece.
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It is highly questionable why these people, who own
very successful businesses in other fields, choose to own
a television channel or any media firm, which has limited
economic profit in a small market. The fact is that by
owning media, e.g. television, radio, newspapers,
magazines, Internet portals, publishing firms, the Greek
businessmen primarily aim in exercising pressure on
politicians. This pressure, or its possibility, is
extremely important and useful when they want to obtain a
public contract of large economic value for another of
their companies. The ability to shape public opinion
seems to be a quite helpful business tool for the Greek
media proprietors and television is the leading medium
for such purposes. (Papathanassopoulos, 1999,
Papathanassopoulos, 2001)
According to this model, Greek politicians may be
manipulated by the economic powers they helped to be
developed. The government seems to be unable to control
the large private stations, but the stations are able to
affect the work of politicians and governmental
officials. Of course, even if they do have the power,
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media owners hardly ever, actually, harass politicians,
since they have great interests coming from public
constructing contracts and other public affairs. Still,
politicians try not to provoke them and they prefer their
other businesses for the public contracts. This balance
forms the quality of information and the public opinion
in Greece. (Sims, 2003, Papathanassopoulos, 2001)
We can easily conclude that Papathanassopoulos
(2001) identifies that the relationship between political
actors and media owners is based on the principal of
‘give and take’. In the small Greek media market the
media owners are actually able to use the media
businesses in order to succeed the goals of their other
businesses. “It is obvious that Greek media owners want
to have the means to put pressure on politicians because
of the huge financial interests they hold, such as
telecommunications, shipping, refining, etc. […] This is
due to the structure of the Greek economy, in which the
state plays a much larger role than in developed
capitalist countries and so many important decisions
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affecting entrepreneurs rest in the hands of politicians”
(Papathanassopoulos, 2001, p.519).
In addition to all the above and given the
relationship between media owners and the media, we may
easily understand the close relationship between
politicians and journalists. Greek journalism has changed
radically after 1989. Journalists, who were considered
neutral, critical, objective and independent, are
actually market oriented, and part of the entertainment
industry with television leading the way. Regarding now
their relations to politicians, as Papathanassopoulos
(2001, p.513-514) argues, most Greek journalists “have
aligned themselves to political parties and are very
close to becoming active politicians themselves. […] In a
country where politics and the media maintain a very
close relationship, politics has not been a terra incognita
for Greek journalists, nor can one distinguish journalism
from politics or vice versa”. It is indicative that a lot
of former well-known journalists become members of the
parliament or governmental officials, such as Theodore
Roussopoulos the government’s spokesman, and others work
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for politicians or a party while maintaining a job in a
newspaper and/or a television channel.
As a general conclusion, we may state that
journalists in Greece represent and defend the interests
of the party and the politicians they are affiliated
with, while the media proprietors use their media in
order to profit from their other businesses.
iii. Current status: Political Communication
Political communication consultants in Greece are
well aware of the contemporary media environment and the
existing inter-relations. All political communication
consultants that were interviewed acknowledge the
importance of having close personal relationships with
journalists. Characteristically, Mr. Flessas stated that
in Greece the relations between politicians and the media
are weird, because “the low level of journalists’ ethics
leads politicians to compromises in exchange to
publicity. Politicians are then media ‘hostages’ by
either withholding their true positions or adjusting them
to what the media and the journalists expect to hear so
that they don’t come to direct conflict of opinions and
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remain popular. By that they ensure media attention and
invitations to good television panels” (our translation:
George Flessas, 04.07.2006).
At this point we should make a very significant
separation. In a small country like Greece where large
national media are based in the capital there are
important differences in political communication
practices for politicians that are elected in small
districts than those in the capital. This distinction was
highlighted by all the consultants interviewed. Even
though we could suggest that these differences do exist,
there are also examples to support the opposite. For
instance, the Ionian Islands elected as their
representative in the 2004 national elections a former
actress and wife of a famous Greek singer, Angela
Gerekou, while the former Minister of Agriculture and
candidate in the same prefecture for many years, George
Drys, lost his place in the Greek parliament.
“Greece is a country where the image is more
important than the essence”. This was stated by Mr.
Stamatis during his interview (05.07.2006), but he
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pointed out that this only relates to some cases. Still,
it is indicative that in elections people prefer
politicians that are one way or another famous or have an
attractive image. For example, Panagiotis Fassoulas,
former basketball player, and Elena Koundoura, former
model, were both elected as representatives, even if they
had no prior relation to politics, just because they were
well-known public figures. Mr. Rizopoulos (05.07.2006)
also acknowledged the importance of image, while Mr.
Flessas (04.07.2006) indicated that in Greece
“politicians confuse politics with life style”. The star
system in Greece is very much influential not only in the
capital, but in other cities. Except from Mrs. Gerekou in
Corfu, Thessaloniki, the second largest Greek city, has
developed a tradition of electing attractive women as
representatives, such as Elena Rapti, and famous people,
such as John Ioannidis, a former basketball player and
basketball coach. It seems that political parties
encourage the candidacies of well-known people, such as
actors, models, athletes, since they ensure media
attention with low cost, or even no cost at all. Still,
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according to Mr. Zairis (05.07.2006), behind an
attractive image there should be essence in order for the
politician to hold a position.
Even if well-known people are most likely to get
elected, in the majority of small cities and other
regions than the capital, media have limited influence
regarding the promotion of local representatives.
Political communication consultants state that in these
cases the most essential form of communication is the
personal contact with the voters, as indicated by Mr.
Zairis, Mr. Stamatis and Mr. Flessas.
Another key characteristic of the Greek political
scene, identified by Mr. Zairis (05.07.2006), is that
politics has evolved to a ‘heritable business’. The
access to parliament and a government position is much
easier for the relatives of older politicians. The most
indicative example is that both the leaders of the two
largest parties in Greece, New Democracy and PASOK,
namely Kostas Karamanlis and George Papandreou, are
respectively nephew and son of the founders of these
parties.
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One of the main reasons for the preceding
characteristics of Greek politics could be the fact that
it is not very easy for most candidates to gather
adequate funds to compete with other candidates that
already have access to the media, one way or another,
especially in the capital. The campaign funding problem
has also occupied the Greek parliament several times.
Many representatives raised questions regarding campaign
funds. (http://www.parliament.gr/ergasies/showfile.asp?
file=Es010222.txt) Most of them acknowledge that their
expenses are more than what the law and the constitution
foresee.
Political communication consultants acknowledge
this fact and even though they suggest the use of a
strategy that contemplates all forms of communication,
such as advertising, public relations and personal
contacts, they are forced to shape their plan according
to the candidate’s needs and funding abilities. It is a
fact that for candidates in the capital the cost of an
election campaign is larger than the cost for a candidate
in another region. In Greece media are preferred by the
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parties, especially for political advertising, while
politicians depend on other promotional techniques, such
as posters, banners, leaflets, and rarely radio ads.
Therefore we should state that political communication
consultants adopt different strategies depending on
whether they represent a person or a party. Generally,
parties have the ability to spend larger amounts of money
for a campaign, while politicians individually have
limited funds.
All consultants stressed a few focal points of
every political communication strategy. First, all forms
of communication should be used in a well planned
campaign strategy, but always according to the economic
ability of the party or the politician. They identified
that it is much more difficult for a young person to
enter the political scene, especially if he has no
political family background or if he is not part of the
star system. Second, it is best if a party or a
politician has well developed and strong media relations.
Even politicians in smaller regions need their names to
be heard by the local, and even better, the national
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media. A consultant needs to be prepared to provide the
right news to the media. This situation is also valid for
parties; along with their organised advertising strategy
in all the media, there is the need for strong and
carefully planned media relations.
We have thoroughly presented the contemporary
political communication and media environment in Greece,
based on recent examples from the last national elections
in 2004 and on the knowledge and experience of well-known
Greek political communication professionals. Next, we
shall examine the case Mr. Karamanis, who was a candidate
for Prefect of Pella in Northern Greece in the local
elections in Greece in 2006. His campaign was very
successful and he is determined to use his political
communication advisor in other leadership activities.
The case of Michael Karamanis:
The “creation” of a leader
Michael Karamanis, Prefect in the Prefecture of
Pella in Northern Greece, was elected in October 2006
with a significant difference from his opponent. Before
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we present the most important steps of his campaign, let
us provide some background information.
Mr. Karamanis was elected as a member of the
council of Pella’s Prefecture in 1998, and after the
resignation of the Prefect in 2000, he replaced him for
the rest of his incumbency. In 2002 he was candidate for
Prefect as a representative of PASOK, which was then
governing the country. At that time, Mr. Karamanis choose
to disregard most of the strategic moves suggested by his
political communication consultant, namely Mrs. Anastasia
Tsochantaridou, and lost the elections. Most of the Greek
politicians blame their consultants for any loses,
especially in the local elections. Mr. Karamanis
acknowledged the fact that he held the largest part of
the responsibility for the course of his campaign, since
he wouldn’t accept the strategic advices from the
consultant.
Before the local elections in 2006 Mr. Karamanis
consulted his political communication advisors, namely
Mrs. Anastasia Tsochantaridou and Mrs. Elpida Simeonidou,
on whether he should be candidate given the political
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scene in the Prefecture of Pella. Mr. Karamanis was again
supported by PASOK, which was now the opposition, and his
opponent by the New Democracy, the party that was now in
government. The candidate supported by New Democracy
wasn’t accepted by many of his fellow members of the
party in Pella and that was one important factor in
favour of Mr. Karamanis. It is indicative that some
actually expressed their support to Mr. Karamanis in
public.
It is a fact that the people who were in Mr.
Karamanis’ political coalition were very carefully
selected to ensure unity. As we have seen, and as
political communication advisors indicated, it is
extremely important for politicians in Greece to have
good personal contacts. In the case we are presenting,
the candidate developed personal contacts with members of
the opposing party, important members of the society that
were campaign contributors, owners of local media and, of
course, simple people. As Mrs. Tsochantaridou underlined,
people in small cities all know each other, and is very
important to befriend the right people who can support
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the candidate in many levels. The people of Pella
sympathised Mr. Karamanis for some personal problems he
had experienced and due to the fact that he has always
been friendly and easy to talk to.
The candidate’s campaign was based on political
alliances and a very good advertising program. His
presence in local television channels was carefully
selected and seldom. Still, his policy suggestions and
thoughts were frequently published in the local press,
with articles and interviews. Banners and leaflets were
strategically designed and distributed. It is indicative
that two leaflets were designed, from which the one
targeted only young people and was thought to be the most
successful one.
Mr. Karamanis, with the assistance from his
political communications consultants, succeeded in
building the profile of a friendly, approachable and
decisive leader, who was able to distinguish and solve
the problems of the people and the Prefecture of Pella.
His victory was correctly predicted by the poll that took
place one month before the elections. In fact the results
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after the elections gave Mr. Karamanis a clear lead of
10% from his opponent.
The new Prefect of Pella, Michael Karamanis,
acknowledged that political communication techniques and
the construction of a political marketing startegy is
very important during an election period. Political
communication is a crucial factor of the contemporary
democratic process and the application of political
communication techniques are needed even after an
election period, especially when the candidate aims to
build a successful political career. Given this fact, Mr.
Karamanis expressed interest in consulting his political
communication advisors often as a Prefect, especially in
important issues.
Conclusion
We may easily suggest that political communication
and the media are closely related. It is extremely
important for the successful completion of a political
marketing strategy the proper use of the media,
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regardless it involves a party or a person. Many well-
known politicians were characterized as leaders after the
careful management of their profile by political
communication specialists. The most indicative example is
Lady Margaret Thatcher, who with the assistance of
Saatchi & Saatchi changed utterly her outside appearance
and “created” the Iron Lady. A most recent case is G. W.
Bush, whose political communication consultant Karl Rove
prepared a careful campaign for the nomination for the
presidency and after the nomination the campaign that led
to the White House. Bush was in the eyes for millions of
Americans, and for many still is, an ideal leader. The
example of the new American president, Barack Obama,
should also be mentioned, although it hasn’t been
examined earlier in this paper.
Coming now to the case of Greece, there are several
social factors that largely affect the nature of Greek
political communication. Indicative is the fact that the
bond between Greek media, politicians and political
parties is very strong. It is commonly acknowledged that
politicians and parties rely heavily on their affiliation
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with certain media. The emergence of private television
has strengthened this relation. These evolutions
influenced political communication in Greece. Political
communication, political marketing and political
advertising are part of every party’s campaign.
Politicians in the capital and most of the other regions
depend highly on their professional political
communication advisors. Still, the notion of permanent
campaign is not part of the Greek campaign reality.
Parties and politicians, according to the political
communication professionals interviewed, are not ready
yet to realize the importance of permanent campaign.
The nature of the relations between the political
scene and the media lead to the point where a great deal
of political communication plans depends heavily on the
media relations, especially if the client is a large
party. “A politician should know, preserve, protect,
develop and expand his personal contacts with media
people, so that he is invited to participate in political
shows and panels” (our translation: George Stamatis,
05.07.2006). It seems that for Greek political
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communication professionals personal contact with people
from the media and the voters is the most crucial part of
a campaign.
Political communication advisors adapt their
strategies according to the needs and goals of their
client. After a careful environmental research they plan
the political communication strategy. Media are an
essential part of every strategy. Television can be used
for campaign purposes largely by parties, especially when
we are referring to political advertising. Politicians
individually rely on their personal contacts and the
contacts of their consultants to ensure media publicity.
Relations with journalists or other media people are the
only way that can provide access to the media for a
candidate.
A deciding part of a candidate’s political
communication campaign is the personal contact with the
voters of a region. All political communication
consultants interviewed were absolute on their statement
that personal contact and discussion with the voters is
the most important practice during a campaign in Greece,
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especially in smaller cities. For the Greek people the
ability of personal communication with their
representatives is a decisive point for their voting
behaviour.
As it seems, Mr. Karamanis understood the need to
consult a political communication specialist, who could
estimate the social environment in Pella and suggest the
correct moves to build the profile of the winner. We have
already stated that he will in fact ask the assistance of
political communication advisors. Perhaps this event will
signal the arrival of the notion of permanent campaign in
Greece.
As a general conclusion we could state that
political communication does not actually create leaders.
What it does is that it can project to the people those
characteristics of a candidate that make him the most
suitable person for the position. And in order for the
elected politicians to sustain their position they would
probably need to use political communication consultants
in other leadership activities. The US and the UK are
leaders in all the evolutions related to political
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communication, but as it seems country like Greece, even
at a local level, are following closely.
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Newspaper articles :
Παπακωνσταντίνου, Π. (2004). Τι θα θυμόμαστε από αυτές
τις εκλογές. Καθημερινή, 07.03.2004 [our translation:
Papakonstantinou, P. (2004). What we shall remember from
these elections. Newspaper “Kathimerini”, 07.03.2004],
http://news.kathimerini.gr/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_670
648_07/03/2004_96244, last accessed, 22.08.2006
Sites:
http://www.parliament.gr/ergasies/showfile.asp?
file=Es010222.txt, Greek Parliament proceedings, last
accessed 25.08.2006
Personal contacts:
Athens, 04.07.2006: Mr. George Flessas – President &
Managing Director of Civitas Consultants
Athens, 05.07.2006: Mr. Antonis Zairis – Managing
Director of the Greek Retail Businesses Association and
Lecturer in Athens University of Economics
Athens, 05.07.2006: Mr. George Stamatis – Managing
Director of Source – Marketing and Communication
Consultants
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Eleni Kioumi: Political Communication, the Media & the “Creation” of aLeader
Athens, 05.07.2006: Mr. Spiros Rizopoulos – Managing
Director of Spin Communications
Thessaloniki, 11.2006: Mrs. Anastasia tsochantaridou –
Owner & Managing Director of ALPR Communication &
Research
Note:
The interviews were condusted as part of the dissertation
for the completion of the MA in Communication Policy
Studies of Eleni Kioumi titled “The Use of the Media by
Political Communication Professionals in Greece”.
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