Using the PMP Approach to Assess Media Performance in Both Democratic and Autocratic Regimes

Abstract This chapter introduces readers to a basic conceptual framework that can be used to clarify whether a communication ecosystem is enhancing or degrading political performance in any place, at any time in history, and for any type of political regime. Using the conceptual leverage provided by the “politics first” proposition and the “media selection and transformation” proposition, this chapter develops a normative framework for clarifying why media independence is an important concept for political communication. Along the way, this chapter demonstrates the usefulness of the PMP approach for answering one of the more vexing and awkward bigger-picture questions that political communication researchers regularly have to face: What is communication supposed to do for politics? The authors specify some core representational activities that can be used as central criteria for evaluating media performance, and explore sources of tension in the representational dynamics between communication ecosystems and political ecosystems that create friction for political performance. The framework developed in this chapter can be applied to autocratic regimes as easily as democratic ones, so that media performance can be assessed from multiple normative perspectives across the full spectrum of regime types.