After completing an undergraduate degree, students may have several areas of specialization to choose from, including a concentration in political communication. Like other communication concentrations, such as public and media relations, political communication is distinct and may require a different approach while studying it theoretically and in practice. From a professional lens, students need to have a clear idea of the job opportunities that one may pursue after completing the program, organizations, and publications that one should be familiar with and contemporary issues in this area of interest for one to be fully prepared for the job market.
Career Path/ Job Opportunity
Like other programs, such as accounting, the career and job opportunities in political communication vary significantly but are mainly concentrated in the political spectrum. A potential job opportunity that a practitioner would pursue after completing political communication is a campaign strategist. This career path is rooted in exploring the manner in which to campaign and what innovation works, shopping around to learn the latest tactical advantages, and adapting the tactic in campaigns (Lilleker et al., 2017). Campaign strategists are at the heart of the political spectrum and have highly been utilized in this arena since the evolution of political communication. For example, a few years ago, the UK prime minister, Stanley Baldwin, harnessed the knowledge of campaign strategists to help him develop the appropriate tone of voice for radio to match the news he was imparting (Lilleker et al., 2017). Therefore, after completing this concentration, practitioners may choose a career path as campaign strategists and work for politicians, political parties, and even organizations in developing campaign ideas and messages for a given cause.
Besides campaign strategists, another career path in political communication would be in government, acting as press secretaries. This career path is mainly supported by the knowledge that one acquires on the relationship between governments, media, and citizens. With this knowledge, one can efficiently pursue job opportunities in the white house as a press secretary, such as Kayleigh McEnany. The primary responsibilities of government secretaries are: being an information conduit, representing one’s constituents, administration, and communications planning (Kumar, 2016). Working as a government press secretary would mainly revolve around developing a working relationship with media outlets and relaying information to the press and members of the public about issues that concern them.
Apart from choosing a career path in the immediate political arena, a practitioner would also pursue job opportunities in political journalism after completing this concentration. As noted by Stromback and Shehata (2018), political journalism is one of the most prominent domains of journalism and an essential component for the functioning of democracy. Most notably, unlike the mentioned career options that focus on helping the government influence the beliefs and ideas of its citizens, political journalism is mainly rooted in acting as a watchdog for members of the public, and it is inextricably associated with a country’s politics and democracy. While all career options in political communication are vital, political journalism is key to a country’s democracy; thus, pursuing this career path requires enthusiasm.
Thirdly, after completing a concentration in political communication, one may pursue a career in lobbyism. This career path differs from the other two in that it focuses on the representation of the interest of different groups in a country. With communication knowledge gained in this concentration, one can become a lobbyist for corporations and other groups by developing close working relationships with a country’s different levels of authority to promote the establishment of policies that serve the best interest of various social groups and organizations.
Organizations that a Person Should be Familiar With
Besides being knowledgeable about the career options available in this concentration, students need to be familiar with potential organizations that one may encounter during practice, including government organizations, not-for-profit firms, and private corporations. As noted, the majority of the job opportunities available in political communications are in the political spectrum. Therefore, students pursuing this concentration should familiarize themselves with the political environment and involved organizations such as the different levels of the government, their responsibilities, operations, and relations with other parties such as citizens and media. Also, students should be familiar with not-for-profit organizations and private corporations operating within the country, which are potential clients for lobbyism.
Publications that A person Should be Familiar With
Apart from organizations, students should also be familiar with political websites to have a significant insight on the political spectrum from the view of others that have been in the industry for years, which would, in turn, help them build their career paths. Among websites that students should be familiar with is ECPR, which focuses mainly on advancing political science (“About us”, n.d). Being part of this platform can help students gain insight into the political arena through research conducted by others, and use the knowledge gained to further their studies on the different career options linked to political communication.
Recent Scholarly Study in Political Communication
Several studies have been conducted in this area of interest to build on the existing body of knowledge on political communication. Among the most recent scholarly studies is the exploration of emotive and positive political communication on social media platforms in Argentina. Most notably, the exploration research was conducted to study the communication that Argentinean political leaders, such as Cristina Fernandez, Sergio Massa, Mauricio Macri, and Daniel Scioli, performed on Facebook between November 2014 to November 2015, a highly politicized and polarized period in Argentina (Tarullo, 2020). Findings from the study reveal that the Argentineans politicians communicated emotive messages rather than non-emotive contents and positive emotions rather than negative ones (Tarullo, 2020). Overall, this scholarly study explores political communication in the digital space and the manner in which politicians communicate their messages strategically to members of the public, notably during election periods.
Recent Contemporary Issue/Topic Related to Political Communication
Among the most contemporary topics in this field of interest is the internationalization of political communication. Most notably, it has so far been determined that communication surpasses geographical boundaries. As a result, messages relayed at a national level, such as the United States, can have far-reaching outcomes in other countries. Besides, with the evolution of media technologies and online platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, social problems in a country can have a significant impact beyond the national boundaries. This continued globalization of social issues and the evolution of media technologies in the contemporary world has raised the need for internationalization of political communication, whereby issues in the political spectrum are explored in a global context. This new issue implies that practitioners in this field should be prepared to collaborate with others from different national spheres to address political communication comprehensively.
References
“About us” (n.d.). ECPR. https://ecpr.eu/AboutUs
Kumar, M.J. (2016). Smoothing the peaceful transfer of democratic power. The White House Transition Project 1997-2017. http://whitehousetransitionproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/WHTP2017-31-Press-Secretary.pdf
Lilleker, D.G., Koc-Michalska, K., Negrine, R., Gibson, R., Vedel, T., & Strudel, S. (2017). Social media campaigning in Europe: Mapping the terrain. Journal of Information Technology and Politics, 14(4), 293-298. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2017.1397239
Stromback, J., & Shehata, A. (2018). Oxford research encyclopedia of communication. Oxford University Press.
Tarullo, R. (2020). Emotive and positive political communication on Facebook: The case of Argentinean leaders. Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations, 22(1), 31-53. https://doi.org/10.21018/rjcpr.2020.1.286
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