The overall aim with this project is to study the way in which politics has been visualised and become publicly visible through nude asian feet different institutions, media, technologies, techniques and imagery, and how this has changed in a historical perspective. The focus is on politics' integration in a visual culture, a culture in which communication, representation and creation of meaning to an ever increasing extent take place in the form of visualisation techniques and imagery (Crary 2001; nude asian feet Sturken and Cartwright 2001). Society's institutions, also its political institutions, are involved in, as well as strongly dependent on, the production of visual representations. The project design comprises a number of strategically chosen case studies. Some of these are historically comparative, others look at specific points in history. For example, studies are underway of nude asian feet politics' integration in the visual culture that developed with the emergence of photo journalism and film in the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s. Moreover, a comparative study of the way in which political scandals have been staged in the media and of the role played by the picture in this context is underway. Yet another study looks at how relationships between politicians and citizens have been visualised in different media at different times during the 20th century. The project is not limited to picture analyses. A main objective is to study the relationship between imagery, media lesbians foot fetish technologies, visualisation strategies and the institutions involved in the visualisation (comp. nude asian feet Sturken Cartwright 2001, p 119). The visualisation of politics is viewed as nude asian feet a result of various institutions' (political parties, PR industry, journalism and mass media's) activities and their way of utilising the media technology available in the battle for (as well as the cooperation on) the nude asian feet public image of nude asian feet politics. An important theme is to relate the visualisation of politics to more general theories on visual culture and visual practices, and to concepts such as attention, attractions, spectacles etc.
The ability and right to speak with authority is determined by positions on what Bourdieu describes as fields and markets. On the linguistic market certain utterances are of higher value than others, and they are made by people with different linguistic capital. Thus far, each utterance and interaction is shaped nude asian feet within the framework of social structures, at the same time as it contributes to their reproduction and change. Both politics and journalism means using language within the framework of various practices and institutions with the ambition to attain authority and status. It means utilising capacities in order to make others, not only listen and believe what is being said but also nude asian feet understand that whoever is speaking is important, significant and worth listening to. This capacity cannot be understood outside of a social and cultural context. The media creates a nude asian feet particular linguistic market and specific expectations on linguistic competence. The media can support but also undermine the right of actors to speak with nude asian feet authority. Politicians have always acted on linguistic markets but the media culture changes the rules applied on the market. Certain ways of using language are rewarded and others become unusable. Politics as a battle for symbolic power is not merely about the success of individual politicians or parties, but it also concerns the nature of the political field; the position of existing political institutions; and the rules of the specific game (the market). The political game always indirectly concerns the preservation of nude asian feet the rules of the game and the privileges had by some to take part in the game. During the 20th century, mass media has played an important role with regard to the production of symbolic representations of politics, of political actors, of roles and relations. Bourdieu touches upon this in his book On Television (Bourdieu 1998). Bourdieu also argues that politics has been professionalised, that politics has nude asian feet become an arena and a responsibility for specialists with specific (linguistic) competence. Politics has developed into an increasingly autonomous culture, which at the same time lesbian feet sex is being nude asian feet challenged not least by non-parliamentary groups.
This project was carried out between 1998 and 2002 and was funded by the Swedish Research Council (formerly HSFR, the Swedish Council for Research in the nude asian feet Humanities and the Social Sciences). The project studies the mediatisation of politics from a point of departure that focuses on the relationships between TV production, TV nude asian feet programmes and the interpretations of the audiences. The objective has been (1) to study, with the help of participant observations and interviews, the ways in which the production of news and current affairs programmes work as discursive practices – what characterises for instance the conditions for production and the working methods of various programmes; (2) to study the way in which politics is presented within the scope of different genres, narrative structures and discursive techniques through analyses of text and programmes; and (3) to study the way in which audience groups interpret and nude asian feet understand politics as it is manifested in various current affairs and news programmes. By utilising an integrated point of departure, the various elements heels video – production, text and reception – are studied in relation to each other. As part of the project we have also nude asian feet studied debate programmes, news programmes and nude asian feet what is known as morning shows containing news and studio conversations. The journalistic interview takes an undisputed central position in all of these programme types. The interview is journalism's natural working nude asian feet method. When politicians participate in the media, this is often done within nude asian feet the framework of journalists' interviews which are governed by specific conversational rules. Against this backdrop, we chose to carry out some sub-studies that particularly focus on the journalistic interview. This focus has then been extended into other studies, which will be outlined below. The project has resulted in several publications (Ekstrom 1998c, 2001a, 2001b; Ekstrom and Eriksson 1999) – as well as the most significant contribution – Eriksson's doctoral thesis Den televiserade politiken. Studier av debattoch nyhetsjournalistik [Televised Politics: Studies of Debate and News Journalism]. The ambition is to continue these studies of politics on TV, with the focus on the relationships between production, text and reception. Through new case studies within the framework of the developed design there is an opportunity to test and further develop the conclusions from the previous study. Together the studies will provide comparative advantages and opportunities to draw overall conclusions.