Page 145 - An Introduction to Political Communication Second Edition

AN INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

and their publics; designing and producing publicity and
propaganda material; raising funds; advising on policy and
presentation, and polling public opinion—becoming, in short, ‘the
stage managers and the creative writers of living-theatre politics’
(Sabato, 1981, p.111).
By the 1970s there were hundreds of full-time political consultants
in the United States, and their numbers were growing in Britain and
other democratic countries. In Britain in the 1980s the names of
Peter Mandelson, Tim Bell, the Saatchi brothers, and Harvey Thomas
became inseparable from the political process. The remainder of this
chapter examines the means and methods by which political parties,
at times of election and in the intervals between them, with the help
of their political consultants, seek to manage the media in such ways
as to maximise favourable coverage, and to minimise that which is
damaging to the organisations’ interests.
The discussion will be organised around four types of political
public relations activity. Firstly, we address forms of media
management—those activities designed to tap into the needs and
demands of the modern media and thus maximise politicians’ access
to, and exposure in, free media. These activities chiefly comprise the
manufacture of medialities—media-friendly events which will tend
to attract the attention of media gate-keepers, all other things being
equal, and to keep public awareness of the party high. The objective
of this activity is, of course, not simply to preserve a party’s visibility,
but to have its definition of political problems and solutions covered.
In this sense, we may also think of it as issues management.
Secondly, we examine the practice of image-management in
political public relations: the personal image of the individual
politician, on the one hand, and how it can be moulded and shaped
to suit organisational goals; and on the other, the image of the political
organisation. The latter activity may also be described as political
marketing, and will frequently incorporate the advertising techniques
described in the previous chapter. But the marketing of political
identity and image extends far beyond the placement of paid messages
in the media, into such matters as the design of a corporate logo (a
party’s symbol), the language used during political interviews and in
manifestos, and the general work of a party when it campaigns in
the public sphere.
The success or otherwise of the aforementioned categories of
activity depends to a large extent on the effectiveness of a third: the
internal communications of the organisation. This includes the setting
up of channels for transmitting information internally, co-ordinating

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