I soon learned that media and politics interact here in a quite different way than in the United States. There is also an active political party system that interacts with journalists in a more intimate way. In contrast, she depicted the United States as a political system dominated by a media-driven commercial system and weak parties, where ideas and real differences are minimal and cleave to the center. In both countries, there is interaction between the media and politics, but the values and orientations of the actors are different. The media system in Germany is far more politicized.
Political success is defined by how the parties and their programs are received.
Yup, that about sums up the presidential-election ritual in the United States. And yet this German audience was fascinated by the presidential campaign, continually asking me for my prediction on the Gore-Bush showdown. Over a cup of chai at Coffee Culture, a local Starbucks clone, one researcher told me that this is a matter of collective self-interest, not just curiosity. Another said that since so many Americans don't vote, maybe the rest of the world should be allowed to participate because what the president of the world's only real superpower does, or doesn't do, directly affects everyone on the planet, whether Americans care or not. If the media set the political agenda, they can also set a counter-agenda that promotes a rejection of politics.