Pages: (163-184 )
Abstract
How the structure of the public sphere is explicated is fundamentally connected to the conceptualisation of the term, “public”. The thrust of this article was to revisit the conception of public, making a distinction between the homogeneous and heterogeneous notions of the concept. Formation and classifications of public, the concept of public opinion, methods of public opinion measurement, and the comparative approach in political communication research were explored. There was the recognition that public opinion research tends to place more focus on a mass public. A constructivist, heterogeneous operationalisation of public, based on the paradigm of multiple issue publics, was, however, argued to be of theoretical and methodological necessity for public opinion measurement in political communication research. This, it was concluded, offers a valuable framework for comparative analysis, particularly in view of the renewed emphasis on contextual clarity in contemporary political communication research. This article also attempted setting a research agenda for robust single-country comparative research, especially in developing countries, as a pathway towards optimising the context-sensitivity of cross-national comparative
Keywords: Public Opinion Measurement, Contextualisation, Political Communication,