How Canadians Communicate IV: Media and Politics

Over the past thirty years, the fundamental character of politicaldiscourse has been transformed. As the influence of on-the-spot TVcoverage and opinion programs grew, print media-newspapersespecially-began to lose their dominant position in the politicallandscape. More recently, Facebook, Twitter, blogs and BlackBerrys haveemerged as important tools for political reporting and analysis and asplatforms for the conduct of political campaigns. While the Canadianparty system has proved surprisingly resilient, the rhythms ofpolitical life are now very different. A relentless, 24-hour news cyclehas resulted in the permanent campaign. The implicationsof this new political style and its impact on political discourse areissues vigorously debated in this new volume of How CanadiansCommunicate, as is the question on every politician’s mind: How canwe draw a generation of digital natives into the current politicaldialogue?