Interactions of Politicians and Media: Cynicism as Political Communication Style

Abstract

The choice of the topic has been inspired by the recent tendency to critically evaluate political processes both in society and in the media discourse: a negative, critical approach, expressed by media representatives, political actors and political commentators, public figures, and the public, is noticeable when analyzing political processes, actions of government or peculiar politicians.

Negativity is noticeable in the discourse of politicians‘ communication when political actors comments actions or speeches of opponents, the problems raised by the opponents are often commented critically, expressing only a negative opinion, indicating only negative arguments or critical remarks. Of course, this kind of negative evaluation of actors of policy-making process is mainly taken over by the media, as citizens do not actively participate in political processes and see political processes and interactions of politicians only in and from media. Media‘ s discourse is a place where political communication style is highlighted: media is a medium for politicians and it‘s only a reflection of politics in the media, but largely based on the content that the media is constructing the public opinion about politics, politicians, political institutions and their activities is shaped. Political discourse in media is constructed not only by media (it’s clear that media is a biased constructor of political field), but it is also clear that without active participation of politicians in media discourse it would be hard to construct political content for media, - so political communication in the media discourse is the result of interactions between politicians and the media, in both content and style of communication.

This article will analyze cynicism as a style of political communication and its expression in the media by exploring the content of the statements of politicians in the media. In the article qualitative analysis of the content of several years of articles by Delfi.lt in the column “Politicians’ eyes” is presented, highlighting elements of political cynicism in comments presented by political actors.