American Exceptionalism in Political Communcation? The benefits of the comparative research strategy

Until the '90s political communication research has been inspired and dominated by American scholars. Since abundant studies and findings have been presented on the American case, we have almost taken for granted that the development in many areas of political communication, such as election campaigns, political media effects, electronic democracy and local communication, follow the pathways and directions that have been evident for the US. This rather one sided view has been challenged for some time by researchers from other countries. In recent years there have been many studies under way which ask the question whether the American wisdom about the development in political communication holds up in European countries. It is obvious that an answer to this question requires a comparative approach to political communication studies.

Therefore, the proposed panel aims at presenting the findings of comparative studies in political communication which include the US and European countries. The common concern of the papers is twofold. First, the studies discuss whether the patterns of political communication found in the US can be generalized or whether we rather witness an American Exceptionalism. Second, the papers deal with the application of the comparative research strategy and by presenting findings in various subfields of political communication the advantages and difficulties of the application of international comparative research is highlighted. The panel brings together contributions from European scholars who are widely experienced in comparative projects of their field. All of them have past or present affiliations to US American universities. Thus, they will not only present their empirical findings, but also reflect on the potentials, the benefits and the problems of the comparative approach.

The question whether the American case is unique is applied to electoral campaigns, political media effects, online- and electronic democracy and local communication.

Participants:

Barbara Pfetsch, Institut fuer Sozialwissenschaft, Hohenheim University, GERMANY (Chair)
Frank Esser, Institute fuer Publizistik, Johannes Gutenberg University, GERMANY (Chair)
Christina Holtz-Bacha, University of Mainz, GERMANY(Presenter)
Rudiger Schmitt-Beck, ZUMA MaNnheim, GERMANY (Presenter)
Sabine Lany, University of Washington, USA (Presenter)
Thomas Zittlel, Harvard University, USA (Presenter)
Holli Semetko, Universiteit van Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS (Respondent)

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