A New Era of Minimal Effects? The Changing Foundations of Political Communication
Abstract
The great thinkers who influenced the contemporary field of political communication were preoccupied with understanding the political, social, psychological, and economic transformations in modern industrial society. But societies have changed so dramatically since the time of these landmark contributions that one must question the continuing relevance of paradigms drawn from them. To cite but a few examples, people have become increasingly detached from overarching institutions such as public schools, political parties, and civic groups, which at one time provided a shared context for receiving and interpreting messages. What are the implications of this detachment on how people respond to media messages? Information channels have proliferated and simultaneously become more individualized. Is it still relevant to conceive of “mass media” or has that concept been made obsolete by audience fragmentation and isolation from the public sphere? Does this new environment foreshadow a return to a time of minimal effects? If we are looking at a new minimal effects era, how can we distinguish it from the last such period?
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New technologies may forge a return to the era of minimal effects, where users give visibility to a topic by liking or sharing posts they see on their walls.
“Autores como Chaffee y Metzger (2001) y Bennett e Iyengar (2008) advierten que las nuevas tecnologías pueden forjar una vuelta a la era de los efectos mínimos , donde los usuarios otorgan visibilidad a un tema con solo 'gustar' o 'compartir' las publicaciones que observan en sus muros.”
From #Tarifazo. Medios tradicionales y fusión de agenda en redes sociales (2018) · cites this paper as Bennett & Iyengar, 2008
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- Authors
- Bennett, W. L., & Iyengar, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- Stanford University (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Communication
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2008-12
- Volume
- 58
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 707-731
- ISSN
- 0021-9916 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2466
- OpenAlex
- W1995298384
- Cited by
- 1,558
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 88 · 2025: 70 · 2024: 68 · 2023: 61 · 2022: 105 · 2021: 111 · 2020: 101 · 2019: 119 · 2018: 144 · 2017: 121 · 2016: 85 · 2015: 121 · 2014: 101 · 2013: 104 · 2012: 69
- FWCI
- 113.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Communication (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Communication › Media Studies and Communication
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Media Influence and Politics
- Social Sciences › Communication › Social Media and Politics
- Keywords
- political communication, mass media, audience fragmentation, public sphere, media influence, political parties, citizen participation
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