Political Power in the Mirror of Mass Media Constructions: The Function of Televised Debates in the U.S. Presidential Election

Authors

  • Laura Vorberg Goethe Universität Frankfurt FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg (from April 2015 on)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5283/copas.226

Keywords:

Systems theory, Niklas Luhmann, mass media, presidential debates, presidential election, U.S. election

Abstract

The article examines the impact of mass media coverage in the U.S. presidential election using the example of the televised presidential debates within the context of Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory. It focuses on the functional interactions of the structurally coupled social systems of politics and mass media with respect to the representation of public opinion and political power. The article outlines how the debate broadcast constructions are part of the respective operations of both systems and considers alterations caused by social media communication.

Author Biography

Laura Vorberg, Goethe Universität Frankfurt FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg (from April 2015 on)

Laura Vorberg attended the B.A. program “Europäische Medienkultur“ at the Bauhaus Universität Weimar from October 2008 to July 2009. From October 2009 to June 2014, she studied American and Media Studies at the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, earning her Master of Arts degree in June 2014. In her M.A. thesis, she examined the interactions of the modes of politics and media in the 2012 U.S. election by focusing on the televised presidential debates. From 2011 to 2013, she worked as student assistant and tutor of cultural studies at the Institut für England- und Amerikastudien at the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt. Her research interests include mass media representations of socio-cultural constructions of reality and identity, media coverage on U.S. politics, and cross-media issues of popular culture. The working title of her dissertation project is “Politische Präsenz, politische Macht und die strukturelle Kopplung massenmedialer Operationen und demokratischer Legitimierung in den U.S. Wahlkämpfen 2008, 2012 und 2016.“ She is a member of the Ph.D. program “Präsenz und implizites Wissen“ at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.

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Published

2015-05-18

How to Cite

Vorberg, Laura. “Political Power in the Mirror of Mass Media Constructions: The Function of Televised Debates in the U.S. Presidential Election”. Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies, vol. 16, no. 1, May 2015, doi:10.5283/copas.226.

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 1 (2015)

Section

Articles

License

Creative Commons License

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.