Political Communication and Mediatic Urgency: An Ethnographic Approach of Portuguese Parliamentary Journalists at Work

ABSTRACT

What kinds of relationships exist between Members of Parliament (MPs), journalists, and spin doctors in Parliament, and how do these relationships influence the performance and representation of politics? Drawing on an unprecedented ethnographic investigation on the Portuguese Parliament, this article suggests that these relations, marked by both closeness and conflict, structure a communication regime driven by social acceleration and mediatic urgency. It is also noteworthy that the media rhythm is intensified by the precariousness of journalism, the hyper-communication of the political parties, and the role of spin doctors in shaping the narratives of political communication. It is concluded that journalism, self-proclaimed an instrument of scrutiny of the political reality, is in practice an instrument of construction of that same reality, reproducing an idea of politics as a specialized practice, as opposed to its understanding as a potential dimension of human relations.

KEYWORDS:

• Acceleration
• democracy
• ethnography
• parliament
• parliamentary journalism
• political journalism
• political communication
• spin doctors

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all the journalists, MPs, press officers, spin doctors and parliamentary staff members of the Portuguese Parliament without whom this research would not have been possible. I would also like to thank Sérgio Vitorino and Vera Palos for their support in translating and revising the article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The identity of all the research participants has been protected. Following a tradition of ethnographic writing, we chose to assign subjects fictitious names instead of numerical codes.

Additional information

Funding

This article was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (DOI: 10.54499/2022.00895.CEECIND/CP1758/CT0001); and in the context of the strategic program of CRIA, Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia (UID/04038/2020).