Abstract
This article traces the development and diffusion of 4 basic normative assumptions in the political communication literature identified by Chaffee and Hochheimer (1985) and examines how these assumptions were brought into the field by Paul Lazarsfeld and his Columbia School colleagues under the guiding principles of democratic realism. As this article demonstrates, these assumptions continue to operate in the literature today. In updating the normative orientations that inform political communication research, the analysis focuses on certain research agendas as exemplar efforts of a changed philosophical position, called neoconservatism, which undergirds and structures studies critical of press performance. In particular, we critically examine 3 research programs in political communication that adhere to the field's formative intellectual assumptions as enduring critiques of media and democracy: the videomalaise hypothesis, media intrusion theory, and the social erosion thesis. Suggestions are made for a fuller integration of communication perspectives into political communication research as well as new ways of thinking about media in relation to politics.