beyond these kinds of show-business. In effect, it is based on the five processes of
comprehensive commodification that I outlined in the previous section.
Thus, to begin with, there has been a mass mediation of politics. It is something
of a cliché to note the influence of the media on politics – even in the nineteenth
century this was a favourite topic for jeremiads – but this has now become
pervasive, based especially in; the interaction between techniques like opinion
polling and media presentation (Brace and Hinckley 1992), the result of an
increasing familiarity with television technique, growing professionalization of
the presentation of politics (as symbolized by growing numbers of consultants^40
and the fame of formative guru-cum-inventors like Lee Atwater, Dick Morris, and
Karl Rove), the burgeoning of available media outlets and the subsequent net
expansion of political programming, and increased media access. When a New
Labour spin doctor declares that ‘what they can’t seem to grasp is that communi-
cations is not an after thought to our policy. It’s central to the whole mission of
New Labour’ (cited in Franklin 200 4 : 5), this is no longer a partisan point – it is
typical of the modern mediated Western democracy.
Second, political actors are increasingly treated as commodities to be sold, in
part, perhaps, because so many citizens lack the attention span or inclination to
follow political issues and tend to invest their trust in the low-information signals
emanating from iconic figures instead. Such marketing involves more and more
use of the small signs of affective technique structured as various kinds of perfor-
mance of style: a politician’s ability to perform in public becomes a crucial asset
but it is very often a performance in which unexpected emotions are bleached from
the process because of the dangers of ‘expressive failure’. Spontaneity has to be
carefully structured. So, for example, the practices of celebrity are becoming more
and more common in the political arena. Think only of the way in which that
languorous extremist Ronald Reagan’s face has become an abiding source of
contemplation by political commentators because of the affective power of its
ability to convey comfort and avuncular authenticity and warmth and even serenity
Turbulent passions 249Table 10.1Progressive technological change in detecting biosocial political tendencies
1930s national polls (Gallup, Harris, Quayle)
194 0s audience research
1969 first intensive polling firm
Mid-19 7 0s telephone polling and focus groups and direct mail fundraising
1976 on permanent campaign
1992 dial groups
1980s daily tracking polls
1990s one-on-one sessions in shopping mall offices
2003 use of Web in Howard Dean campaign to organise monthly meetups
(Create own crowds). Decentralized campaign using websites. Use of
email and blogs instead of focus groups and such to gauge opinion.
House meetings.