Abstract
Digital platforms have taken on a critical role in political communication. Among research showcasing platforms as change infrastructure (Castells 2012; Hepp 2019) and environments for digitally reframed questions on existence and culture (Lagerkvist and Peters 2018), the textbook by Klinger et al. (2024), Platforms, Power, and Politics: An Introduction to Political Communication in the Digital Age, is the first to focus on political communication immersed in the digital platform and hybrid media ecosystem. Each of the thirteen chapters offers a comprehensive reflection on the consecutive elements that underpin the ideas from fifteen years of studies on platformization, social media, and political communication, with the entirety treated under the common umbrella of hybrid media systems (Chadwick 2013).
In the first two chapters, Klinger et al. (2024) exposed these platforms as practical infrastructure for political elites and their audiences and as a factor contextualizing global business change. The authors placed the platformization in “hybrid media systems,” respecting the fact that many forms of media consumption and communication are seamlessly connected. They also provided a model of political communication in the digital era, with platforms at the core.
In Chapter 3, the authors concentrated on platforms as a significant societal problem, which is a kind of designed and appropriately curated communication system. This problem highlights the central role of platforms in political media and, on a broader scale, their importance within a framework for social agency. Chapter 4 explains how digital platforms have shaped public spheres and public opinion in recent years. The authors elucidated the increasing minority and radical voices as a primary consequence of platforms for political spheres and a kind of unedited public sphere (Bimber and Gil de Zúñiga 2020).
Next, in Chapter 5, the authors discussed the evolving relationship between journalism and politics, “fake news,” and audiences, facilitating the understanding of the position of trust in journalism as an institution. Diversified communication strategies clarify the new business model of journalism and data journalism. Chapter 6 focuses readers’ attention on strategic communication in a new form. Starting with the history of political strategic communication, the authors covered political advertising, political marketing, public relations, and public diplomacy. Then, they described how mobilizing the public and shaping public discourse have been changed by these platforms.
Chapter 7 explores how digital platforms have been dominating the political scene, particularly through digital political advertising. The chapter explores what this transition means for voters, political parties, and the political environment at large. In contrast, Chapter 8 reflects on how the transition from the traditional to the digital platform era affects social movements, protest culture, and revolutions in diverse political regimes.
In Chapter 9, the authors explored the concept of platforms through media governance, understood as how political actors shape rules and regulations framing the behavior of media. They discussed the relationship between political communication, policymakers, and regulations governing platforms and the platforms’ self-regulation. Furthermore, Chapter 10 details a series of current problems disrupting democracy: propaganda, misinformation, disinformation, and polarization. Chapter 11 addresses the question of concerns profoundly associated with democratic backsliding. An important consideration is how platforms shape social and political identity in the context of populism and extremism.
Chapter 12 demonstrates how digital political communication remains intertwined with entertainment. The authors revealed that elements related to the domain of lifestyle and creative production play a profound political role and convey intensive political meaning. Lastly, the conclusion recapitulates the framework for understanding political communication amid this gradually advancing technological change.
The book is scaffolded in a manner that could serve as a comprehensive guide for diverse audiences in the United Kingdom and Europe, the United States, Latin America, and Asia: undergraduates, postgraduates, scholars, politicians, and citizens. By bridging the relatively independent domains of the digital sphere and political communication, the authors provided a model of political communication in the digital era, which is the most productive proposition of the book. Moreover, the model effectively addresses the expectations of media systems and communication theory. The authors broke it down into four elements, with the core part being platforms and media. Within these platforms, content and affordances are not considered separate entities but operate through interrelated technology and governance. They offered a representation of digitally driven phenomena, which remains coherent with traditional models, placing political communication within a broader ecosystem of communication power and data-driven economy.
The second critical concern in the book is its structure, which offers a panorama of digital political communication. Thus, the general idea of the book is to provide readers with a complete chain of topics, where the order promotes a better understanding of the primary concepts related to platformization. Following this, the mechanisms of operation within the domain by various political entities are explored.
Finally, the book explores the future challenges for digital society and democracy. Although aspiring to be global in nature, it does not explicitly address the practical implications of digital political communication for Africa. Thus, its usefulness to this part of the Global South remains limited.
Overall, the book is a must-read to explore the mechanisms of how platforms, communication power, and hybrid media ecology are intertwined with current political communication.
