TRANSFORMATION OF SYMBOLIC POLITICS IN THE CONDITIONS OF TELEDEMOCRACY: CAUSES AND EFFECTS
Introduction
politics television mediated symbolic power
This paper will be the continuation of a theoretical discussion about how the communications media have changed the nature of politics into what is known as symbolic politics. I will concentrate on the influence of television on modern political practice. Such focus is determined by the assumption that the audiovisual media have become the main medium, through which symbolic politics is performed and its nature being changed.using the concept of symbolic politics, I will explain the nature of media power and its impact on political system of society, on its character, practices and institutions. By symbolic politics I mean political communication practice that aims at influencing citizens through emotional channels . Symbolic politics campaigns are conducted through mass media, and citizens participate in them as members of the media audience. Thus, the main focus of this paper centers on the inquiry: Is the transformation of symbolic politics harmless for the liberal democratic values ​​and for the development of civic culture in a modern state? The answer to this inquiry is that modern symbolic politics conducted through mass media (mainly television) eventually generates and determines the process through which political life enters the symbolic virtual space of mass media. Such process can constitute a serious danger for democratic values ​​such as political participation and civic culture because citizens, once placed within a symbolic media-political space, become alienated and passive spectators of a political show rather than an active and conscious participants in the political processes.final goal of my work is to emphasize the dangers of new mediated symbolic politics for the democratic political practices. Political spectatorship encouraged by modern symbolic politics through television may essentially contradict the principles of political participation.terms I introduce and will operate in the paper have strict limitations and should be comprehended in this restricted way. By teledemocracy I mean special type of democratic government, adapted to the rules of telediscourse (discourse of television). There are different definitions of teledemocracy and in this study I will apply the notion of teledemocracy that is closer, in its meaning, to telecracy : the power of television and not to the concept of teledemocracy defined as
