Political television plays a significant role in the political life of the Soviet Union, especially among youth. Opinion polls during and after election campaigns have shown that political television programmes play a major part in determining the voter's behaviour. On average, about 28% of candidates for the local soviets were under 30. In the newly elected soviets there are 7.8% of deputies who are under 30 years old.1 In Arkhangelsk Town Council this proportion is even higher. Opinion polls among voters in Arkhangelsk showed that in voting for candidates who were younger than 40 television presentation was especially important. Voters aged 18 to 35 stressed the special importance of television presentations and TV in their choice of candidates.2
Sociological research into political television started in the USSR only last year afer the election campaign for the USSR Supreme Soviet. There are about 20 works published in the Soviet Union dealing with the problems of mass media and their effects on voters, and in nearly all of them it is stated that, in a situation of a one-party system and multi-candidate elections, the media play a major role in determining the voters' preferences.3 An opinion poll undertaken by the Academy of Social Sciences showed that 15% of voters made their final decision on candidates under the influence of the mass media (Komarovsky 1990).
The impact of television was especially important for voters because of the television presentation of the first Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR. Thus 96-98% of Muscovites watched the presentations during the whole period (Demidov 1990). And, although in the global estimation of factors influencing young voters' behaviour television presentations are no more important than candidates' political views and their territorial orientations, it is important to study this problem.
Prior to 1971 there were approximately 300 research titles worldwide relating to the effects of the media. Over the following years another 2500 works appeared which show that the majority of research work in this area is recent (Liebert et al. 1982). Three major topics in connection with the effects of television on youth and children have been investigated: firstly, the effects of television violence; secondly, the effects of television advertising; and thirdly, the effects of television on prosocial learning. There are also sections in works dealing with political education and political socialisation where some attention is given to political television and political news (e.g. Westin 1981).
In western sociology discussion of the role of the media in relation to electoral behaviour has undergone considerable change. There has been a profound shift from early media research that dealt mostly with `effects' to recent works which examine the conditions and forms of media influence. Also, due to the decline of the class vote, there has been a considerable change in the definition and conduct of political debate.
At the same time the role of the media in political education and socialisation was never denied. Wiebe, analysing the role of the communication process in socialisation, defines three types of message: directive media messages, maintenance media messages and restorative media messages (1971). The mass media cannot establish a relation with individuals by directive media messages. Most of the studies show that such messages do not succeed unless they presented within the context of structured, face-to-face, teacher-pupil relations. Such directive messages predominated on Soviet television until several years ago and had very little effect, if any effect at all, e.g. the `Brezhnev cult' campaign that lasted for nearly 10 years.
Maintenance messages that explain how to avoid dangers or when to pay taxes call for little conscious intellectual effort. Here the mass media play an extensive role through the communication of new information, analyses, interpretations, persuasion and sales promotion. However, Wiebe states that three conditions are necessary for an impact on maintaining social norms: (a) the audience must be predisposed to react according to the message; (b) social provision must exist for facilitating such actions; and (c) the message itself must have audience appeal.
The restorative messages have the most important role in the socialisation process not only in dramas or soap operas, but also in escapist TV serials and the news. For young people television is significant in modifying attitudes about lifestyles. If the media pick up an issue such as the rights of minorities or women, whether modification occurs or not depends on the complexity and importance of the issue, as well as the exposure given to it.
Television as a political education system is best illustrated in programmes based on the Open University concept. The British Open University has reached hundreds of thousands. In 1981 it admitted 21,000 new students and in its first 10 years has had a graduation rate of nearly 60%, 10% higher than American on-campus colleges. Several educational programmes were established to introduce television in schools, using it as a tool in learning social science subjects, including politics. Similarly in the USA the Annenberg School and the CPB are partners in a 15 year, $150 million, programme to create innovative, college level courses with an emphasis on new ways of using telecommunications (Hiebert et al. 1985).
In general, the role of political television in political socialisation and political education in the UK can be seen from several angles:
In a comparative study between five countries by Almond and Verba explanations of political socialisation are made in terms of political culture, where this culture is supposed to be the uniting link between the micro- and macro-levels in politics. They state that the political cultures in "the two relatively stable and successful democracies, Great Britain and the United States" are close to the ideal type (Almond and Verba 1965).
The traditional way of presenting politics on television, especially by the BBC, acts to maintain the equilibrium of the components of the democratic system:
Thus no matter what political preferences are shared by an individual, the fundamental concept of democracy operates at a higher societal level. Television gives people an opportunity to maintain the equilibrium between participation and passivity. By presenting the wide variety of political issues, television helps people consider in what particular areas they are capable of participating, and in what form.
Furthermore, those attitudes depend strongly on local and group identity. Television plays a role in broadening the sense of group identity and establishing the reference norms and the standards of the social group with which the person identifies. This is especially significant for young people when a consistent political orientation in attitudes to a reference group is being established. A vivid example is the impact of Greenpeace groups on the environmental protection organisations mainly because of the way in which they were presented on television.
Political television is important in maintaining the power of elites and their responsiveness to influence from the non-elites. The elites' attitudes in this respect must also coincide with those of non-elite groups. The way in which opinions of politicians, experts and ordinary people are presented on television (e.g. in news programmes) creates a certain link between instrumental and affective orientations in politics and softens the contradictions between the elites and non-elites.
Finally the norms and standards of political television help to maintain the equilibrium between consensus and cleavage. A certain polarisation is necessary but political controversies must not be too profound. Television in this aspect plays a role in keeping passivity and participation balanced. Everyday news broadcasts on the most important questions thus create a structural pattern of how this issue is being handled by the main political forces. Secondly, it creates a specific image of how, why and when consensus and cleavage exist, how it originates and develops. The television coverage of the UK miners' strike 1983-4 can serve as an example of this idea (Philo 1990). Via television it is becoming easier to teach the `rules' of the `democratic game' and to introduce new generations into a political culture particularly adopted for this purpose. The possibility of having access to the majority of the population with the help of television introduces new aspects of political-civic culture, and this adopted value consensus creates the conditions and motivation for social solidarity.
Easton and Dennis are the originators of a theory which is in direct opposition to that of Almond and Verba (Easton and Dennis 1967, 1969). The basic principle of the theory is the view of the political system as converting inputs from the social community into outputs. Inputs consist of demands and support. Outputs consist of authoritative actions and decisions. Thus the gap between political demands and political decisions produces different kinds of stress that actually make the political system ineffective. Easton and Dennis analyse the main types of stress.
The first type of stress is an output stress that arises when members of the system do not conceive the political decisions as binding. Socialisation can counteract this stress in the individual, while still a child, by teaching that obeying the decisions of the authorities is necessary and useful. Although television plays a very small role in developing this attitude it is significant in keeping it stable. According to this theory the television coverage of the miners' strike was necessarily unablanced because it was dealing with the fact of public disobedience against a basic principle of political culture: that the authorities' decisions should only be opposed by peaceful methods, to keep the political system stable. This use of television does not mean that methods of governing are totalitarian, but it is effective when political decisions are opposed by force or violence.
The second type of stress is caused by an excess of demands. It is overcome by educating the members of the system to refrain from transforming social needs into political demands. At the age of adolescence members of the society have to learn what questions are appropriate for political discussion. Everyday news on political topics stabilise this pattern. Any attempt to introduce new topics of discussion is either ignored or ridiculed. At the same time, the system is not entirely rigid. New questions can be introduced when they are logically connected with the mainstream of political discussion. Thus discussing sexual behaviour or making political demands connected with the matter was, not so long ago, considered inappropriate, but now it is connected with the problem of AIDS and medical services it is welcomed. But before it could become a topic for open political discussion it was necessary to persuade members of the society that it was necessary. In this, the role of media and especially television was extraordinarily significant.
A third type of stress is based on the fact that the political system must establish priorities in order to be able to handle all the demands that arise. This process of selection itself creates problems. The decisions that are not regarded by the members of the society as binding can result in lack of support for the system.5
To sum up it could be said that political television is especially significant in the socialisation of youth by:
Another theory, usually associated with Gramsci, defines political socialisation as a mechanism for the preservation of hegemony. The political effect of socialisation is based on the assumption that political power is unequally distributed and that this means that political demands are met in a way favourable to the ruling groups or classes. This theory uses Marx's concept of false consciousness: "the condition of large numbers of people accepting a social and political order even when it is not in their objective interests to do so" (Dawson et al. 1977). According to this theory political television acts as one of the main sources of hegemony propaganda, and even when critical of the ruling class it is still always based on the assumption that the existing political system is the best.
These theories of political socialisation have the common message that the process of socialisation is assumed to give the individual certain dispositions of actions or rather behaviour which then by certain forms of participation in political life are supposed to lead to certain effects on political systems. In all these theories the media, and especially television as having the most penetrating influence, play a very significant role.
This theoretical research can be used as the basis for further investigation
into political television. It has been especially valuable in the USSR recently
as a new framework of political beliefs is being founded. It is evident that
television has played an important role in the Nagorny Karabakh affair or in
covering military incidents in the Baltic Republics. The obvious difference
between the general attitudes of the public and those of young people who
witnessed the
`stagnation period' demands that special research on political television be
carried out.
Dawson, R.E., Prewitt, K. & Dawson, K.S. (1977) Political Socialization. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.
Demidov, A. (1990) Muscovites About Elections. Sociologicheskiye Issledovania. 10: 125.
Easton, D. & Dennis, J. (1967) The Child's Acquisition of Regime Norms: Political Efficacy. American Political Science Review. 61: 25-38.
- (1969) Children in the Political System: Origins of Political Legitimacy. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Hiebert, R.E., Ungurait, D.F. & Bohn, T.W. (1985) Mass Media. 4. New York: Longman.
Jennings, M.K. & Niemi, R.G. (1974) The Political Character of Adolescence: The Influence of Families and Schools. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Komarovsky, V. (1990) Typology of Voters. Sociologicheskiye Issledovania. 1: 44.
Liebert, R., Sprafkin, J.N. & Davidson, E.S. (1982) The Early Window: Effects of Television on Children and Youth. 2nd ed. New York: Pergamon Press.
Philo, G. (1990) Seeing and Believing: The Influence of Television. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Westin, O. (1981) On Political Socialization and Education. Upsala University.
Wiebe, G.D. (1971) The Social Effects of Broadcasting. In B. Rosenberg & D. White (eds.) Mass Culture Revisited. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand. 154-68.