Intimization: Difference between revisions

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'''Intimization''' is "a revelatory process which involves the publicizing of information and imagery from what we might ordinarily understand as [an individuals’s] personal life – broadly defined. It is a [[publicity]] process (involving the media) that takes place over time and involves flows of personal information and imagery into the [media]".<ref>Stanyer, J. (2012) Intimate Politics: Publicity, Privacy and the Personal Lives of Politicians in Media Saturated Democracies. Cambridge: Polity. p. 14</ref> It has mainly been studied as a society wide process in the context of politics although it can apply to other contexts.

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==Intimization and the media coverage of conventional politics==

The growing visibility of the private lives of public figures has been much commented on but has received little systematic attention. The findings that emerge are somewhat mixed. Errera analyzed coverage of French politicians’ private lives in two magazines ''[[Paris Match]]'' and ''[[VSD (French magazine)|VSD]]'' over a seven-year period between 1990 and 1997.<ref>Errera C (2006) 'La vie privée des politiques, un tabou de la politique française.' Communication et langages 148(1): 81-102.</ref> She found that politicians’ relationships, personal health, their home and family life, personal financial issues and their past life were very much to the fore in the magazines’ coverage especially of leading French politicians, such as, [[Jacques Chirac]] and [[François Mitterrand]].

In terms of newspaper articles referring to UK national leaders’ personal lives, Langer found a clear upward trend over time.<ref>Langer AI (2007) 'A Historical Exploration of the Personalisation of Politics in the Print Media: The British Prime Ministers 1945–1999.' Parliamentary Affairs 60(3): 371-387. p. 383</ref> The coverage of their private lives rose from around 1% of the leader’s coverage in 1945 to 8% during [[Tony Blair]]’s tenure in office (2007). A follow up study (period 2007-2008) showed that the coverage of opposition leader [[David Cameron]] was even more focused on his private life than that of Tony Blair, while that of Prime Minister [[Gordon Brown]] was less, suggesting the importance of specific leaders for the amount of attention their private life receives.<ref>Langer AI (2010) 'The Politicization of Private Persona: Exceptional Leaders or the New Rule? The Case of the United Kingdom and the Blair Effect.' International Journal of Press Politics 15(1): 60-76.</ref>

However, Rahat and Sheafer, who looked at election coverage in two leading Israeli newspapers for 16 campaigns between 1949 and 2003, found no significant trend in media coverage of candidates’ personal life, with the focus on personal life never exceeding 15% of the news items over time.<ref>Rahat G and Sheafer T (2007) 'The personalization(s) of politics: Israel, 1949-2003.' Political Communication 41(1): 65-80. p. 74.</ref>

The only comparative research conducted so far by Stanyer found some interesting cross national differences. Looking at non-scandalous and scandalous media coverage in seven democracies (Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US) the research found that intimization is more prevalent in the UK and US compared to the other countries.<ref>Stanyer, J. (2012) Intimate Politics: Publicity, Privacy and the Personal Lives of Politicians in Media Saturated Democracies. Cambridge: Polity.</ref> Stanyer argues that there is no magic causal [[silver bullet]], such as, new communication technologies, or tabloidization that can explain the difference between countries. Rather, the outcome is the result of a complex interplay of necessary and sufficient factors operating in conjunction. These include: personal factors including the age of the politician, media conditions, such as the size of the [[tabloid press]] and presence and absence of privacy protection for public figures, and political factors, such as the nature of the political system.