History

- Special Senate Davey Committee on mass media

- Kent Royal Commission on Newspapers

- News media is aka as 4^th estate or 4^th branch of gov’t for its watchdog role

How Politicians use media

Political reporter: prize for reporters is to get the political beat, to be a political reporter was to understand the need for a ‘deal’ between politicians seeking coverage and journalists seeking a story

Methods of media control:

- Accreditation: Most democratic countries simply accredit journalists who belong to recognized journalists’ organizations or news organizations, e.g. International Federation of Journalists

- Gatekeeping: media handlers e.g. press secretaries, seeking interviews

- Invitations: to events, off the record discussions

Distribution or withholding of information:

- Media minding or communications discipline: politicians have advisors from PR firms

- Press releases: how distributed and to whom, exclusive distribution to senior reporters

- Briefings & press conferences: scripted performance, judicious chairing (who can ask questions, questions screened), limiting duration, timing is key - when they are called deadlines or on slow times e.g. Sunday or Friday night

- Permanent campaign mentality: minor updates are considered newsworthy when they are in effect not

- Political coverage: near saturation or opposite of neglect

- "Stone walling": not answering questions

- Leaking info: unattributed back-door leaks

- Overwhelming information for reporters

Manipulation

- Managed/staged political events

- "Kite flying": the unacknowledged spreading of rumors or disinformation by the government, continuous but selective access to information and personalities, used sparingly or else risk alienating entire press corps, such journalists can be useful conduits for unsourced claims by ‘sources close to the minister, e.g. while ‘kite flying’, media handlers can claim the story if it meets a positive response from the public, taking credit for the politician. Conversely if the story meets a negative response, it can be denied, blaming the journalist on whom it was planted in the first place

- Managed exclusives –form of media release: planned event offered by arrangement to a selected journalist, may also be delivered to news organisations whose proprietors have a prior agreement with the government

- Direct feeds: political parties provide press releases frequently not necessarily of significant events

- Damage control: hiring public relations firm to actively work to keeping things out of news

- Direct payment – bribery, e.g. expense paid trips

- Coercion

Election coverage

- Media management focus

- Commodification of political leadership

- Spin or substance debate: short term spin, long term substance

- Negative campaigning & attack advertising

- Emotional appeals – fear/security and greed

- Polling and how this affects TV coverage

- Debates

- Campaign advertising – large sums of money

- Access for reporters: bused around for photo ops etc…, with few details known beforehand of itinerary

- Media frame election as a contest (horse race analogy) seeing whose winning moment by moment

- Policy reduced to slogans, entertainment or trivialization

- Complex issues don’t get covered