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140 | Norbert Merkovity and Büsra Özyüksel selection that politics is trying to influence (Brants and van Praag 2006, 31; Strömbäck 2008, 234-235). The first three periods can be interpreted as how media gradually replaced party logic. Political behaviour became characterised by mediatisation, and more actors appeared from outside parties in political communication. These processes led to the fourth period of political communication, which started in the mid-2000s. In this period, the fragmentation of media accelerated. Ihe different channels available on the Internet create information overflow, rooted in the information abundance of the third period. The illusion of making people consume the information that they want is ultimately created. In this era, the relationship between politicians and journalists loosens, as political actors can convey their messages directly through social networking sites (Blumler 2016, 25-26). In this fourth period, mediums will be the mediators of political messages, not as institutional actors that shape the news according to editorial standards, but as platform providers. The importance of the media logic and mediatisation is questioned in the world of politics. Besides, nonpolitical actors’ (celebrities, etc.) communication is blooming as community sites offer the same opportunities for them. There is an exceptionally vivid communication environment resulting from mixing political with nonpolitical information. Another consequence is that politicians have to pursue multidimensional information management. All that we used to know as interpersonal communication is now a globally spread, incredibly diverse, and timesynchronous communication network. Nevertheless, political elites still handle traditional media as an important channel. In the enhanced competition for users’ attention, political actors concentrate more on the image of their messages than on their content (Blumler 2016). The fourth period of political communication offers politicians the opportunity of directing attention to themselves. However, there is a need for them to be able to sense the actual trends, as well as to know the features of key communication channels and their effects on users and the traditional media. POLITICIANS AND SOCIAL MEDIA IN EUROPE The previous subsection gave a general overview of the evolution of political communication in Europe in the past decades. However, the implications mentioned regarding the fourth period anticipate that social media is a more complex phenomenon. Television can convey reality, or how the news narrates events. We can also see that different technologies mark the borders within a coherent political project or campaign. All mediums have inner rules that work to keep the integrity of the contents while the audience can easily interpret them. The presence of rules can be read from two directions.
