(...) Recent empirical investigations in Germany would seem to strengthen this idea of a biotope model between politicians and journalists. While carrying out his intensive interviews, Werner Patzelt repeatedly found confirmation of close cooperation between politicians and journalists such as this typical statement made by a member of the German parliament: "We also have a good relationship. When he (journalist) says, 'couldn't you bring this up' - I bring it up in parliament and they report about it. The relationship between politicians and journalists is a "kind of relationship of exchange with dependency on both sides".

The benefits for the politician
- personal publicity,
- making an issue that is beneficial to the politician the subject of discussion,
- deflecting interest from subjects that are damaging,
- information from journalists (about the political competition etc.),
- journalistic goodwill,
are complemented by reciprocal benefits for the journalist. Journalists also have an interest in personal prestige, in making a given issue the subject of discussion or deflecting attention away from it, in gaining information from politicians (for example about competing journalists) and in long-term goodwill from politicians. Both politician and journalist are following the same goal, namely keeping political communication alive; this despite having partially differing intentions and interests.

Both the politician and the journalist, however, can end up becoming interdependent on each other and little more than interacting players in a bargaining network. (...) The journalist is forced into looking after his/her special source and the politician must do the same if he/she is to retain a trusted partner. Both parties are like astronauts floating aimlessly around a weightless space capsule. The public down on the ground is left to look on in wonderment at the strange way in which the two parties are acting.

(...) If the current fashionable term of a political class is to make any sense at all, then surely it is directed at this biotope between politicians and (...). The term "shadow politics" would seem very fitting here. The public is left to look on like spectators at a tennis match from right to left and back again as the parties involved show first togetherness and then antagonism, clash over scandals and call for opponents to be 'spared' or 'crucified' depending on whether it is set or match point.

[Taken and translated from: Ulrich von Alemann, Parteien und Medien, in: O. Gabriel u.a. (Hg.), Parteiendemokratie in Deutschland, Bonn BpB 1997]

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Methods:    Teaching Politics    II    Peace Education    II    Methods