Page 235 - An Introduction to Political Communication Second Edition

NOTES

8 PRESSURE GROUP POLITICS AND THE OXYGEN OF
PUBLICITY
1 In Classes in Contemporary Capitalism (1975), for example, Poulantzas
argues that in addition to social classes defined by the exploiter/ exploited
relationship, each social formation also includes fractions or strata within
classes, and what he terms ‘social categories’, such as intellectuals and
bureaucrats, members of which may belong to several different social
classes.
2 Business organisations, of course, use public relations techniques to
influence the political environment in more general ways, particularly if,
as is the case with the nuclear power industry, the product is politically
controversial (Dionisopoulos, 1986; Tilson, 1994). For a detailed
discussion of the use of source stategies in industrial relations in 1990s
Britain see Negrine, 1996.
3 This argument was used in Britain by ITN’s Alistair Burnett, when
questioned by a critical viewer as to the reasons for the relative invisibility
of CND on that organisation’s bulletins (McNair, 1988).
4 In his letter dated July 29, 1985, then Home Secretary Leon Brittan stated:
‘Recent events elsewhere in the world have confirmed only too clearly
what has long been understood in this country. That terrorism thrives
on the oxygen of publicity. That publicity derives either from the successful
carrying out of terrorist acts or, as a second best, from the intimidation
of the innocent public and the bolstering of faltering supporters by the
well publicised espousal of violence as a justifiable means of securing
political ends’ (quoted in Bolton, 1990, p.161).

9 INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL COMMUNICATION
1 Michael Parenti notes that the ‘red-baiting’ of left-wing political
movements has been a feature of the Western media since the nineteenth
century, but that its frequency and intensity increased after the Bolshevik
revolution. For him, the ‘Red Peril theme’ played a major part throughout
the twentieth century in ‘1) setting back and limiting the struggles and
gains of labour; 2) distracting popular attention from the recessions and
crises of capitalism by directing grievances towards interior or alien forces,
and; 3) marshalling public support for huge military budgets, Cold War
policies and Third World interventions to make the world safe for
corporate investments and profits’ (1986, p.126).
2 For examples of pro-Soviet propaganda produced in Britain during the
Second World War, see the documentary Comrades in Arms (Channel 4,
1988).
3 Newshight, BBC2, May 3, 1982.
4 The programme gave voice to critics of government policy from the
military and the Tory back-benches, leading to the accusation that it was
an ‘odious and subversive travesty’ (Sally Oppenheim, MP, quoted in
the Glasgow University Media Group, 1985, p.14).
5 For a documentary account of these events see To Sell a War, broadcast
as part of ITV’s current affairs strand on February 6, 1992.

218