Authenticity in political communication : conceptualization, measurement, and examination of a popular concept

This dissertation investigates the concept of political authenticity from a communication science perspective. The literature on political personalization and changing notions of good politicians constitutes the theoretical framework for the three research articles in the thesis. The first article offers a communication science conceptualization of political authenticity. Based on a narrative literature review, it proposes a definition of political authenticity, identifies research perspectives to analyze the concept, and derives four theoretical concept dimensions (consistency, ordinariness, intimacy, and immediacy). The article integrates the perspectives and dimensions to derive a process model for the public construction of political authenticity. The second article draws upon the conceptualization of political authenticity to develop and validate a new scale for perceived political authenticity. Three consecutive empirical studies were conducted to test the composition, performance, and validity of the instrument. Results from an expert panel and two independent online quota surveys suggest a three-dimensional 12-item scale. The new P-PA Scale was found to be a robust and reliable measure that highly correlates with relevant political attitudes and behavioral intentions. Finally, the third article investigated the effects of political media exposure on perceived political authenticity. It draws on the literature on media priming theory, performed political authenticity in social media, personalization in media reporting, and dual processing theory to derive assumptions about media exposure effects on political authenticity. Results show that differences in perceived political authenticity are related to exposure to political information in different media types. Overall, the thesis sheds light on a popular concept in modern political communication and makes theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions to its investigation.