Page 143 - An Introduction to Political Communication Second Edition

AN INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

news, editorial responsibility for the selection of ‘soundbites’
broadcast, and the interpretation placed upon them, is seen to belong
with the journalist. When Margaret Thatcher appeared on the BBC’s
live Jimmy Young Radio Show (as she frequently did during her time
in office) the things she said were inevitably perceived rather
differently than if she had addressed television viewers within the
context of a party political broadcast. Such messages are ‘less
manufactured’ than advertisements and, as such, may be thought to
carry more legitimacy and credibility. Even if such a conversation is
light-hearted and avoids politics entirely, the audience may still feel
that a ‘truer’ picture of the politician emerges. The lack of control
and apparent spontaneity of most free-media scenarios heightens
‘believability’.
This quality of free media is a double-edged sword, however. To
the extent that a politician’s appearance on a news or discussion
programme is genuinely outside his or her editorial control, the scope
for mistakes (from the politician’s perspective) is clear. Broadcast
interviews can be hostile as well as deferential. Misjudgments can be
made about the impact of a political event once it has passed into
the hands of the media, as happened famously with the Labour Party’s
Sheffield rally during the 1992 election campaign (see p. 136 ). When
in 1983 Margaret Thatcher was questioned by a well-prepared viewer
on live national television about the sinking of the Belgrano she
revealed to millions of viewers an unpleasantly arrogant side of her
personality.
The advantage of free media exposure for politicians is founded
on the awareness of the audience that such appearances are ‘live’, or
if not live in the technical sense, something more than a manufactured
political advertisement. And the audience knows this because
politicians frequently slip up, or encounter hostile opposition and
criticism when they enter the free media arena.
Politicians, therefore, while desiring media exposure of this more
‘authentic’ kind, also strive to reimpose some kind of control over
the output, and to achieve this requires that politicians employ
professionals skilled in the workings of the media.

POLITICAL PUBLIC RELATIONS: A BRIEF
HISTORY

As the media’s heightened role in the conduct of political discourse
became apparent, the twentieth century witnessed the birth and rapid

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