Political actors as communicators

This chapter focuses on the challenges faced by political actors when communicating with their audiences. It is argued that communicative skills are of increasing importance due to the mediatization of politics and the increased centrality of media logic. Furthermore, the chapter reflects on the personalization of politics that is closely linked to mediatization and that has broad implications for political institutions, citizen behavior, and the role of political actors as communicators. In particular, personalization increases the importance of personal resources, the communication skills of political actors, and specifically charismatic communication and rhetorical skills. The authors discuss in detail research regarding those skills and suggest that charismatic communication and rhetorical skills should both be important in future study of political actors as communicators.