Josh Greenberg and Charlene Elliott - two good friends and faculty members at the Carleton School of Journalism and Communications (where I serve as a sessional lecturer in advertising and PR) - have just published a terrific book called “Communication in Question.” I’m plugging the book, of course, because I played a small role in it. But there are many more reasons to take a close look!
The book’s subtitle sums it up nicely: Competing perspectives on controversial issues in communication studies.” If you work in communications, study communications, or both, this book is worth a close look. From foreign ownership of Canadian media and video surveillance, to reality TV and image in politics, the book presents two sides of each debate and leaves you, the reader, to perhaps make up your mind about it. The topics are as varied as the styles of writing, which makes for a very interesting read.
My small role was to argue that politics is indeed all about image these days. I argue that this does not necessarily mean democracy is in trouble or that we’re all duped by nice hairstyles and catchy soundbites (like so many critics like to argue). To me, image is communications (Hence the title of my chapter: “More than words: why image matters so much in politics”). Sure words matter, policies matter, issues matter. But, as many of my previous postings have tried to illustrate, when politicians mismanage the communications process — wrong choice of outfit, wrong body language, wrong tone of voice — they counteract their best intentions because the words, policies and issues never quite get through to the audience. Voters, after all, are busy and sophisticated so they use what they see (the image) to make judgments about candidates and how they’re likely to behave once in office.
A politician who can’t communicate effectively using all the “channels” at his or her disposal (words, body, voice, clothing, etc.) is like a lifeguard who can’t swim. Being great at CPR won’t do you any good if you can’t reach the people you’re trying to serve. For the record, Denise Rudnicki, a seasoned journalist and fellow sessional at Carleton offers a rather compelling argument that, in fact, politics is not all about image.
Ponder this contentious issue, have your say, and, most of all, check out the book.
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October 24, 2008 at 11:27 pm
[...] I mentioned in an earlier post, I think elections in this country are increasingly about the image conveyed by ...