Key concepts, dilemmas, and trends in political communication: a literature review considering the Brazilian landscape

Abstract

The article reviews the main concepts and dilemmas illustrating the debate on the connections between media and politics. Considering that experiences in Political Communication are manifested in unique ways in different democracies and scientific cultures, we also examine how historical, social, and political aspects are intertwined with the development of the field in Brazil–reinforcing the need for de-westernizing media studies. Although we do not expect to exhaust state of the art, we hold that this is a helpful discussion since it outlines the agendas and trends of a specialty that has become more complex, tackling the question of to what extent widely accepted concepts are able to explain the roles of the media in Global South societies.