ABSTRACT
Modern campaigns are defined as those with a party organization coordinated more closely at a central level by political leaders, advised by external professional consultants like opinion pollsters. In the news media, national television has become the principal forum for campaign events, supplementing other media. Postmodern campaigns are understood as those in which the coteries of professional consultants on advertising, public opinion, marketing, and strategic news management become more coequal actors with politicians, assuming a more influential role within government in a ‘permanent’ campaign, in which they coordinate local activities more efficiently at the grassroots level. For some citizens, the election may represent a return to some of the forms of engagement found in the premodern stage, as the new channels of communication potentially allow greater interactivity between voters and politicians.
