This chapter highlights three particular reasons why political marketing matters. Two concern the study of political marketing: first, the importance of fostering political marketing literacy and, second, the use value of marketing as an analytical tool to understand developments in political communication. The third returns us to core ideas of democracy, in particular the theoretical relationship of marketing to models of democracy. All three are linked.

Political Marketing Literacy

The concept of media literacy is well established. It evolved through various paradigms throughout the second half of the twentieth century, including a critical effort to inoculate the working class against the ideological propaganda of the culture industries; the analysis of popular culture as the site of ideological struggle; and, more commonly now the educational paradigm, wherein media literacy is typically defined as the ability “to access, analyze, evaluate and communicate messages in a variety of forms” (Livingstone, 2003: 6). Many countries in Europe, North America, Australia, and elsewhere include media education as a standard part of school curricula. Notwithstanding continuing debate about the precise definition and purposes of media literacy, there is broad recognition that the ability to analyze critically media texts across a range of communication formats is part of the essential toolkit both for informed consumption and for citizenship in a mediated world.