Americanization in election campaign communication
[1] Since the concept was established in the 1970s and 80s, many recent studies have criticized and disproved the idea, because it neglects the different adaptations and variations of election campaigns between countries.
[6] Other aforementioned strategies can be merged in the orientation towards the medium television: Campaigns contain political events especially designed for the media, where politicians offer emotions and pictures for the camera.
[9] The second one is the modernization theory, which argues that Americanization of election campaign communication is “the consequence of an ongoing structural change in politics, society and the media system”[10] worldwide.
The concept of using modernization as an alternative to Americanization has been criticized by Hallin and Mancini for carrying an evolutionist connotation, as “an implicit assumption that change is to be seen as ‘progress’, necessary and unilinear.
It also lumps together many dimensions of change – technological, cultural, political, and economic – that need to be distinguished [...].”[13] Nevertheless there are researchers who prefer using the term modernization instead of Americanization.
Researchers discovered in the parliamentary election of 1997 in Great Britain similar campaign strategies of Tony Blair for New Labour and Bill Clinton.
[19] Under the influence of America the structure of the Labour Party shifted “toward one more suitable for a media-based campaign, drawing on Clinton’s earlier experience”.
Despite all the differences in the concrete campaign procedures, similarities are also observed [...].”[25]Focusing on the context of electoral systems as well, opponents of the Americanization concept criticize the one-sidedness of the strategy transfer from the US to other countries by forgetting the development of greater social structures.
The concept of hybridization shows “country specific supplementation of traditional campaign practices with select features of the media-driven, postmodern style of campaigning.”[29]
