Faculty of Communication and Media Studies 9th International Conference on Marketing & Development University of Thessaloniki, June 2005 Pop-politics: intermingling of politics, mass society and everyday life Dr. Emmanuel Heretakis Faculty of Communication and Media Studies University of Athens

Contents Towards defining pop-politics Forms and functions of pop-politics Pop-politics and the media environment (Provisional) conclusions

Towards defining pop-politics Pop-politics is defined as the outcome(s) of the generalized space of political discourses when subjugated to the hegemony of the commodity discourse and described as the outcome(s) of the continuous interplay between the political “industries” and the target audiences.

Towards defining pop-politics (2) Political “industries” is a collective name for a partially organized network of interconnections comprising the overtly political aspect the production of political discourse the distribution/ dissemination of political discourse the assessment of political discourse

Towards defining pop-politics (3) Target audiences is a collective name for people in their everyday life, consumers of the wider sphere of media content.

Towards defining pop-politics (4) The constituent parts of both political “industries” and target audiences interrelate with each other. It is possible to discern a public part of the trajectory of political discourse (mediated by mass communication) and a private part of the trajectory, including the course from the consumption of political discourse and afterwards.

Forms and functions of pop-politics This flow could be better comprehended as a continuous process, involving the political “industries” the target audiences and the political research agencies (mediators between the first two) in an almost never-ending succession.

Forms and functions of pop-politics (2) This flow: constitutes a bi-polar schema, and is repeated at the end of every full circle.

Forms and functions of pop-politics (3) The bi-directionality of the flow suggests another bi-polarity, the one between dominance and subjugation.

Forms and functions of pop-politics (4) Interaction of political advertising with target audiences

Forms and functions of pop-politics (5) Circulation of meanings over time:

Forms and functions of pop-politics (6) Pop-politics seems to be an open, two-sided procedure:

Pop-politics and the media environment The political “industries” have to construct a generalized “cloud” of political communication, with the intention to produce the widest possible visibility. i.e. advertisements in all media, slogans, speeches, announcements and press articles, publication of poll results, political meetings, rallies…

Pop-politics and the media environment (2) … facilitating the construction of a space of meanings- where the commodity discourse reigns supreme- and their circulation. In such a context, political discourse as such is being subjugated by the commodity discourse, creating a locus where techniques directly related to the commodity discourse, such as advertising, marketing and promotion are transferred –by osmose – to the domain of political discourse.

(Provisional) conclusions Such a concept restores the various target audiences with a dynamism embodying their reaction(s) to the λόγος of the political sphere, in contradistinction, at the same time, with what is usually perceived as unidirectional flow, i.e. coming from “above”. It thus provides the audiences ampler ground than the static treatment of the “traditional” unidirectional flow But much more have to be researched and studied in detail.