The Changing of Political Landscape of TV Media in Georgia

Abstract

The process of exerting influence by mass media on the election campaign, which is described as political Mediatization, takes center stage in this paper. Mediatization in this context means the implementation of mass media logic within the political process. Political processes needed media professionals hired to navigate the political strategy. With the emergence of the advisors emerged the term, Mediatization." At the beginning of the 1990s in Georgia, after 70 years of soviet governance, the first steps to statehood had been made. In post-Soviet Georgia, multiparty and competitive elections allowed the political parties to use foreign experience in a political campaign. The work aims to examine the tendencies of Mediatization in the election campaign in Georgia. Following the research hypothesis, weak institutionalization of the party system creates a favorable ground for a Mediatization of the election campaign. The general notion in most studies (Farrel, 1996; Farrel, Kolody, and Medvic, 2001; Mancini, 1999; Norris, 2004; Swanson & Mancini, 1996; Plasser & Plasser, 2002; Hjavard, 2008; Stromback & Esser, 2009) is that recent decades have seen a process of change and convergence in contemporary styles of the campaign in established and developing democracies. In post-Soviet democracies, the party system's weak institutionalization has played a determining role in the transformation and Mediatization of the election campaign. In sum, only a few studies have concentrated on Georgian campaigns. Qualitative research methods have been utilized during the study, namely: a) Expert interviews with journalists and political consultants; b) In-depth interviews with representatives of political parties; c) In-depth interviews with the selected electorate. Like in other post-Soviet democracies, the Mediatization process of election campaigns had been actively implemented in Georgia. Notably, the personalization of politics and the fragile ideological and structural basis of the Georgian party system were the main characteristics of the first years of independence. At the initial stage in post-Soviet Georgia, the parties' task was to mobilize a broad mass for demonstration. However, the strengthening of mass media and media technologies played a turning role in political transformation. Mediatization is a theory that argues that the media shapes the processes of political communication and the society in which that communication occurs. In Georgia, the Mediatization of politics had been carried out gradually and reached its peak during the "Rose Revolution." Over the last decades, politics has been undergoing changes, which have transformed the institutions, processes, and political culture. This paper applies the concept of Mediatization as a theoretical framework to post-soviet Georgia. In doing so, it addresses how modern changes in the media environment impact the dynamics and outcomes of election campaigns. We argue that even though the concept of Mediatization has been in developed democracies, the process of Mediatization is equally at work in hybrid democracies. Moreover, the unique features of transitional democracies, their institutional fragility, and personalization can be perceived as the basis of the mediatized election campaign. In post-soviet democracies, institution-building takes place in extraordinary circumstance that makes it difficult for political parties to influence public opinion. Political parties have adapted the content of their messages to make them compatible with media news values. During the transition period, the capacity of political institutions to determine the course of politics is weakened, and this position of weakness might open up opportunities for the media to shape the political agenda. In post-soviet Georgia, political parties rely heavily on the media as a central resource to enhance and achieve political goals. Modern communication technologies and media strategies are highly effective tools for mobilizing public opinion. The country is described as, television-centric." A short period of governance of Zviad Gamsakhurdia does not allow us to analyze the election campaign comprehensively. Significant prerequisites for the Mediatization of the election campaign emerged during Eduard Shevardnadze's presidency. For the purpose of this research, Shevardnadze's presidency can be divided into two stages in terms of Mediatization: the first covers the first half of the 1990s and it may be conventionally called the initial stage; and the second stage - the second half of 1990s and the further period up to 2003, which may be called transitional period. Political Mediatization was actively implemented during and after the "Rose Revolution." In September 2012, after days of rumors on social media, Georgian TV channels began broadcasting several video recordings of torture and rape in prison in the capital of Georgia. The scandal was unique in Georgian history and paved the way for Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream Coalition to win the 2012 parliamentary vote. In the last ten years, the media's election campaign role was significantly increased, and modern political communication technologies have been actively used. Georgia's media landscape has remained pluralistic but very polarized. The media, especially TV, are perceived by politicians as instruments of political struggle.