ics give all the social and political phenomena aesthetical (symbolic and irrational) but not political (practical and rational) characteristics. As a result, political actions are evaluated according to criteria of entertainment and public popularity.mentioned above, symbolic politics has been always embedded in and existed as an inherent part of political power. However, if in ancient times power used statues, medals and triumphal arches, today power uses modern media. By this time television has become the most effective and appropriate channel for conducting symbolic politics. Furthermore, television acts not just as a medium, but plays an independent role as the powerful institution for mass communication with its own rules and principles.
and political systems: shift in balance of power
to system theory in social sciences, the society can be viewed as the systematic unit of elements, each of which has its own prescribed function. Political system has the function of decision making, putting the society into order using political power, while media system is to perform the function of political communication, which would serve to consolidate society and its parts.subsystem within the social system should undergo certain innovations in order to support the common equilibrium based on relations between subsystems. Hence, this principle guarantees normal functioning of the society. Additionally, we can also assume that subsystems of the society may compete between each other: social complexity is tied to the functional differentiation of society and the development of specialized competing and overlapping systems . political systems of Western liberal democracies experience serious difficulties while performing their tasks-a phenomenon of a widening legitimacy gap : a decrease of the citizens support for the state and its institutions. When the welfare state was established, the necessity for political activism and the audience s interest in serious political and socially important topics significantly dropped. More and more segments of society turned towards apolitical life comforted by the economic and social stability brought about by a protective nature of the welfare system.the political system became weaker the media system grew stronger. The transformation of modern media system has all the reasons to be called media revolution . Media became more powerful in public sphere: they turned out to be the most influential, if not the only method of effective political communication in our days. Moreover, liberalization and economic development created the media market, which continues to grow and to form the competition enviro...
