Strategie komunikowania politycznego

Abstract

The main determinant of the development of the contemporary political communication constitutes the attempt to impart a rational dimension to the actions of communication in compliance with Weber’s understanding of the term. M. Weber claimed that rationism is a direct reflection of (a) the ability to determine such aims which are optimal and adequate to one’s own resources within a given situational context, as well as the possibility to calculate the consequences of the actions undertaken (rational actions on account of the aim) and/or (b) orientation of actions around a given value system (rational actions on account of the values). In this view, a direction of the development of the contemporary conception of political communication reflects the evolutionary transformation of the relations between an axiological and instrumental-functional approach to the process of creating, planning, and executing communication strategies. Four stages in the development of the conception of communicative actions strategically ordered can be distinguished: — stage I: domination of communicative actions oriented around the political system of values preferable by the sender of the information (the stage of a traditional political propaganda; the chief aim of communicative influences — social integration/persuasion), — stage II: a relative balance of actions oriented around preferable political values and pragmatic aims (the stage of institutionalised political propaganda; the chief aim of communicative influences — persuasion/integration/political activation), — stage III: domination of pragmatic aims parallel with political values preferable by the sender of the information (the stage of early communication campaigns market-oriented; the chief aim of communicative influences — persuasion/political activation), — stage IV: correlation of pragmatic aims and instrumental values (the stage of a developed political marketing communication; the chief aim of communicative influences — political motivation, with the main emphasis on the election activation). An increasing popularity of the marketing methods of organization and conducting political campaigns should be treated as a subsequent stage of the search for the efficient formula of political communication, the stage whose main determinants are the following: — organizational transformation of traditional political subjects (political parties, electional organizations of candidates), — gradual professionalization of politics, in two perspectives: professionalization of political parties evident in the increase of the role of professional politics in making important organizational decisions, as well as the appearance of new actors on the political stage, political consultants, taking over the position of a central decisive centre in political organizations, with responsibility for preparation and implementation of the political communication strategy, — mediatisation of political communication — means of mass communication have become the main transmission channel of political information on the one hand, and, on the other hand, a kind of creator of the political reality, shaping the image of the political market, particular political subjects, or the course of political rivalry by active selection and exposure of given information according to the commercial and/or political interests of the media transmitters, — change of the system of factors determining political behaviours (electional behaviours in particular) of citizens — what becomes especially important in this context is a progressing decrease of the level of political identification leading to the increase of the number of citizens slightly engaged in the political enterprise, possessing relatively low competences of receiving and understanding transmitted political information, as well as basic problems with taking a given political decision. The complexity of the market conditions makes the subjects of political rivalry choose and develop communication marketing strategies. Such a way of organizing and realising political communicative campaigns — in accordance with the four basic criteria: efficiency, predictability, calculationism, and the use of advanced technology — may be treated as an optimal variant of a strategic adjustment of the contemporary organizations to diversified requirements of the political environment.