In the context of the considerable and global increase of public attention to political commu- nication, the essay connects some keywords emerging from recent publications in the eld. The rst word is “storytelling”, considered as source for a new narrative vision about political leadership, an analysis of which is provided by the evaluation of Christian Salman’s book by the same title (Storytelling, 2007). The second word is “autobiography”, viewed as a powerful tool to introduce the symbolic meaning of a political gure and to identify the image of a nation (such in the case of Obama and his autobiographical books). The third word is “charisma”, a rather ambiguous term, crucial to understand the difference between hard, soft and smart power, as we nd in Nye (The Powers To Lead, 2008) and Castells (Communication Power, 2009). While Nye suggests that charisma results from the interweaving of soft and hard authority forms, Castells underlines the increasingly relevant relationships between power and communication. The new situation is based on the unstable balance between broadcasting and on line tools. In particular, TV news run after scandals and gossip, while social networks (and in general all the new me- dia web 2.0) announce a sort of self-mass-communication. Thus, the leaders’ skill to use the “right” media at the “right” time necessarily implies comprehension of the role of technology in postmodern society.
Algunos estudios sobre comunicaciòn politica en la época de Obama: una lectura sociologica
CRISTANTE, Stefano
2011-01-01
Abstract
In the context of the considerable and global increase of public attention to political commu- nication, the essay connects some keywords emerging from recent publications in the eld. The rst word is “storytelling”, considered as source for a new narrative vision about political leadership, an analysis of which is provided by the evaluation of Christian Salman’s book by the same title (Storytelling, 2007). The second word is “autobiography”, viewed as a powerful tool to introduce the symbolic meaning of a political gure and to identify the image of a nation (such in the case of Obama and his autobiographical books). The third word is “charisma”, a rather ambiguous term, crucial to understand the difference between hard, soft and smart power, as we nd in Nye (The Powers To Lead, 2008) and Castells (Communication Power, 2009). While Nye suggests that charisma results from the interweaving of soft and hard authority forms, Castells underlines the increasingly relevant relationships between power and communication. The new situation is based on the unstable balance between broadcasting and on line tools. In particular, TV news run after scandals and gossip, while social networks (and in general all the new me- dia web 2.0) announce a sort of self-mass-communication. Thus, the leaders’ skill to use the “right” media at the “right” time necessarily implies comprehension of the role of technology in postmodern society.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
