NEW MEDIA DIMENSIONS:
PERSONALIZATION OF POLITICS
Victor MORARU
Academy of Sciences of Moldova,
Co-ordinator of the Division of Social Sciences and Economics,
Chisinau, R. Moldova
Tel. + 373 795 85 843
E-mail: prof.moraru@gmail.com
Abastract
During the recent years, there has been an increased interest paid for the personalization of politics. At the electoral competitions, modern democracies have witnessed to changes in establishing consensus, more focused on static ideological values, group affiliations and party-centred politics, rather on political candidates’ personality characteristics, their image, and voter’s personal choices. The new order in the field of politics has redefined pragmatism for political actors, who, in their political action, use many ways that can provide increased visibility and operate with the full potential of media arsenal. So, the general institutional personalization leads to personalization in the media, which in turn leads to personalization in the politicians’ behaviour. Respectively, the main sources of political information for society have imposed personalization as the general means of communication. In this context, the relationship between political power and the ability to influence media agendas is a key issue within the field of political communication examinations. That political personalization can be better understood by considering the personalization in the media. This article focuses on the personalization model in the media activity, examines diverse aspects of the concept of personalization, it presents the experience accumulated by the Moldovan and Romanian media in covering the political process through the comprehension of the personalization as test of notoriety.
Key words: personalization of politics, political communication, media, elections, current media paradigm, political behaviour, media influence