areas of study The field of political communication is focused on 4 main areas: Election campaigns - Political communications involved in campaigning for elections. Government operations - This role is usually fulfilled by a Ministry of Communications, Information Technology or similar political entity. Such an entity is in charge of maintaining communication legislation and would be responsible for setting telecommunications policy and regulations as well as issuing broadcasting licenses, comments press releases, etc... Media content - The interaction between politics, media content and the public. Communication processes - How people communicate about politics. According to James Chesebro, there are five critical approaches to contemporary Political communications: Machiavellian - i.e. power relationships Iconic - symbols are important Ritualistic - Redundant and superficial nature of political acts - manipulation of symbols. Confirmation - political aspects looked at as people we endorse Dramatistic - politics is symbolically constructed. (Kenneth Burke) Role of social media Social media has dramatically changed the way in which modern political campaigns are run. With more digital native citizens coming into the voting population, social media have become important platforms on which politicians establish themselves and engage with the voters. In the digital age, evidence across the world has showcased the increasing importance of social media in electoral politics. Taking Australia as an example below: 86% of Australians access the Internet, and with a 17,048,864 voting age population, around 14,662,023 voting population has access to Internet, and 65% of them use social media, which means 9,530,314 Australian voters use social media. (The 2013 Yellow™ Social Media Report found that among internet users 65% of Australians use social media, up from 62% last year). With almost half of Australian voting population active on social media, political parties are adapting quickly to influence and connect with their voters. Studies have found that journalists in Australia widely use social media in a professional context and that it has become a viable method of communication between the mainstream media and wider audiences. Social media experience relies heavily on the user themselves due to the platforms' algorithms which tailor consumer experience for each user. This results in each person seeing more like-minded news due to the increase in digital social behavior. Additionally, social media has changed politics because it has given politicians a direct medium to give their constituents information and the people to speak directly to the politicians. This informal nature can lead