A Culturalist Approach to the Concept of the Mediatization of Politics: The Age of “Media Hegemony”

Abstract

This article rethinks the concept of the mediatization of politics from a culturalist perspective, rebuilding the concept through five arguments: the first two are focused on the symbolic dimension of the issue in the context of the naturalized hegemonic media; the third presents it as a conceptual tool helpful to study the way citizens increasingly interact with media technologies and forms to engage with politics; the fourth poses it as a state of affairs where individuals and groups develop cultural patterns of media connectivity that lead to politically mediatized situations; the last proposes this state of affairs as the “fourth age” of political communication: An age of media hegemony. Hugo Chávez's politically mediatized Venezuela serves as an illustration.

Exploring Hugo Chávez’s use of mimetisation to build a populist hegemony in Venezuela

“…This term originated in the Roman Catholic Church, in 1662, when the Church began using propaganda for its campaign "for the propagation of the faith" (Scrouton, 1982, p. 381). It has been used to define the linear, one-dimensional way with which Bolsheviks, German national socialists, (Block, 2013). Additionally, historian Enrique Krauze (2008) argued that Chávez "inaugurated an unprecedented style in politics" (p. 90) through which he not only governed but also "performed"…”

“…Voltmer (2006) noted that all players involved in political communication act within "a complex web" of interactions, conflicts, and negotiations "over aims, procedures and, ultimately, control of the public agenda", depending upon each other to satisfy their interests and achieve their goals (2006, p. 6). These webs mostly develop in the "omnipresent" media arena and hence, tend to lead to "mediatisation" phenomena in contemporary times (Block, 2013;Brants & Voltmer, 2011;Shultz, 2004).…”

“…a) the mediatisation of politics (Block, 2013) The fifth aim is to shed newer light on the links between theories of hegemony, identity politics, and populism within the field of political communication.…”

“…I have used some fragments from my article "A culturalist approach to the concept of the mediatization of politics: the age of media hegemony" (Block, 2013), based on the research I conducted for this thesis to build a workable definition for the mediatisation of politics, to apply to the study of Chávez's case. I refashioned the concept of the mediatisation of politics by prioritising the study of the symbolic power of the media for "constructing reality" (Bourdieu, 2003;Couldry, 2000Couldry, , 2012, and hegemonic capacity to shape the ideological environment (Hall, 1982).…”

“…In the light of these arguments, I proposed in my article the arrival of a fourth age of political communication, constituted by the mediatisation of politics, which is defined as an age of media hegemony (Block, 2013). To formulate this proposition I borrowed from studies of media hegemony that have explained how media technologies and forms have become not only dominant, "but also naturalized, that is, hegemonic for some individuals or groups" (p. 262)…”