Media / Publication
December 28, 2025

Large language models

This entry examines the role of LLMs in political communication research, tracing their development and key concepts, and discussing opportunities and challenges.

Large language models (LLMs) represent a significant advancement for the field of political communication. Their capabilities for the study of language vastly surpass previous approaches, enabling a wider and more generalized array of applications. The introduction of models like BERT revolutionized political communication research by enhancing the accuracy of text classification tasks. However, it was the release of ChatGPT that captured widespread public attention, establishing LLMs as a cornerstone of artificial intelligence in public perception. This entry examines the role of LLMs in political communication research, tracing their development and key concepts, and discussing opportunities and challenges. LLMs can reduce costs while improving accuracy compared to traditional methods of content analysis. Generative LLMs (gLLMs), such as those developed by OpenAI, have pushed the boundaries of text understanding and generation. Besides these advancements, significant concerns remain regarding biases, reproducibility, and ethical considerations. Addressing these challenges is crucial for harnessing the potential of LLMs.

To continue reading please visit:
https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035301447.vol2.00087

This book chapter was published in Elgar Encyclopedia of Political Communication.

Gruber, J. B., & Votta, F. A. (2025). "Large language models". In Elgar Encyclopedia of Political Communication. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035301447.vol2.00087

Keywords: Natural language processing (NLP); Quantitative text analysis; Machine learning; Generative artificial intelligence (AI); Big data