A Closer Look at Political Communication

Chapter one investigates how the local network media helps the key stakeholders to participate in the policy debate regarding a local low-income housing policy in Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A., drawing mainly on J"rgen Habermas's theory of public sphere. The second chapter discusses how coffee-houses and public reading houses are places today where political communication is often established, and the neighborhood effect is most often felt. It can be described not only as tea-coffee drinking places where free time is passed, but also as places where voter behavior begins to form and democracy is created. The authors go on to focus on the past use of racialized language as one mechanism for evaluating political communication in the 21st century. Lastly, the phenomenon of politicians employing prayer in the church as a potent political tool to subtly campaign for election and reelection in Nigeria is explored.