Election campaigning in the television age: The case of contemporary Greece

This article explores the ways that Greek election campaigns have changed a s a result of the development and growing dominance of private television. It sketches some of the reasons behind those changes and discusses the cent rality of television in contemporary Greek election campaigning and politic s. The main argument is that television has become a significant, if not in dispensable, medium gor politicians' public communication. Television's imp ortance is the result of both institutional and stable transformations, nam ely, the inability of political parties to maintain stable mechanisms for c ommunicating with citizens and the weakening of previously strong partisan identities. A combination of political and media dynamics have therefore cr eated a situation whereby the electronic media, principally television, hav e become central to contemporary political communication in Greece.