Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
10th International Symposium Communication in the Millennium, İstanbul, Türkiye, 24 - 26 Mayıs 2012, cilt.1, ss.490-499, (Tam Metin Bildiri)
Although accepted as an important political sentiment, there is little research on the measurement and affects of political cynicism. According to a modern definition, political cynicism is the mistrust generalized from particular leaders or political groups to the political process as a whole. Peter Sloterdijk defined cynicism as ‘‘enlightened false consciousness’’ and diagnosed cynicism as the dominant form of contemporary consciousness. Sharon Stanley moves on from Sloterdijk, Jameson, and Zizek, and claims that contemporary political cynicism is an outcome of postmodernism. In their classic article, Agger, Goldstein and Pearl (1961) probed the concept of political potency alongside political cynicism and argued that the most politically cynical tend to be high on political potency. This paper accepts readers’ comments as a symptom of selfconceived political potency and investigates whether political cynicism goes along with it. In this perspective, the recent earthquake in Van, Turkey, came up also as a striking example of postmodern politics. Reader’s comments in six mainstream newspapers are analysed to disclose political cynicism.