ABSTRACT
Communication is a vital part of the processes of political socialisation, participation and recruitment, although its role is usually and understandably taken for granted. Public opinion might be regarded as the most obvious product of political communication, but it should not be seen in the narrow context of democracy. There has been a great deal of interest and speculation about the relationship between the mass media and public opinion. Public opinion is the expression of values and attitudes, and it can be argued that the values and attitudes held by an individual or group of individuals are clustered in a way as to provide a coherent view of the world or an ideology. The development in the 1950's and 1960's of the concept of political culture is an explicit recognition of the importance of values. Marxists and non-Marxists have developed different concepts of ideology and the role it plays in society, but in doing so they have emphasised its significance.
