ABSTRACT

In this article, we systematically assess how recent political communication scholarship has empirically demonstrated the interactions of the three main actors: elites, citizens and media. We found that research has focused overwhelmingly on within-actor relationships involving citizens, to the exclusion of elites and media, and concentrated mostly on micro-level processes. Most inter-actor relationships also tended to be moderated than mediated, implying the nature of findings as more exploratory and conditional than confirmatory and causal, and that cases were overdrawn from Western countries. In discussing possible reasons and implications for these findings, we call on scholars to move beyond studying micro-processes related to citizens' cognitions, attitudes, and behaviors, and explicitly anchor them to higher-level societal ramifications; incorporate the investigation of causal processes of inter-actor relationships; and make concrete affirmative actions to de-Westernize political communication research.

摘要

在本文中，我们系统地评估了最近的政治传播学术如何通过经验证明三个主要参与者之间的相互作用：精英、公民和媒体。我们发现，研究主要集中在涉及公民的演员内部关系上，排除了精英和媒体，并且主要集中在微观层面的过程上。大多数行为者之间的关系也倾向于缓和而不是调解，这意味着调查结果的性质比确认和因果关系更具探索性和条件性，并且案例是从西方国家透支的。在讨论这些发现的可能原因和影响时，我们呼吁学者们超越研究与公民认知、态度和行为相关的微观过程，并将它们明确地锚定到更高层次的社会影响；纳入对行为者间关系因果过程的调查；并采取具体的平权行动，使政治传播研究去西方化。