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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Two Perspectives on the Communication Skills of Political Leaders

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This study aimed to outline the current communication skills of political leaders. Media data, in total 5,697 items, were collected from four newspapers in Finland over a period of six months in 2008. The interview data consist of eight interviews with Finnish party leaders. All materials were analyzed by qualitative content analysis. Two kinds of perspectives are described: the media perspective by illustrating what kind of descriptions, evaluations and requirements for communication of political leaders are established in newspapers and the political leaders' perspective by reporting the experiences and evaluations of political leaders themselves. These two perspectives are compared. The findings show that communication skills are a crucial part of competence of political leaders. Three main categories of communication competencies were oral communication skills, media skills, and leadership communication skills. The press emphasized public speaking and the party leaders themselves media skills and lead...