Page 87 - An Introduction to Political Communication Second Edition

AN INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

leader. This source becomes more important as the demand for
news increases. Thus develops a relationship of mutual
interdependence between politicians and journalists, in which each
can benefit the other (Blumler and Gurevitch, 1981). Rodney
Tiffen observes that ‘news is a parasitic institution. It is dependent
on the information-generating activities of other institutions’
(1989, p.51). One researcher writes of coverage of political affairs
in Germany that

approximately two out of every three [news] items are,
on the basis of their respective primary sources…the
outcome of press releases and conferences, whereas the
rest may be traced back to public events, journalistic
investigations, or non-public events to which journalists
were invited…hence, the shaping of reality as presented
by the news media may thus, on the basis of empirical
evidence, be attributed primarily to this sector, and not
the autonomous activities of journalists.
(Baerns, 1987, p.101)

While some observers complain about what they see as the media’s
uncritical, non-discriminating use of public relations material
(Bagdikian, 1984; Michie, 1998), for the political actor in such
circumstances there is much to be gained by learning how the media
work—their newsvalues, professional practices and routines—and
using this knowledge to present journalists with information in a
way most likely to be accepted and turned into news. As Tiffen notes,
news production ‘generates patterns of [journalistic] responsiveness
which political leaders [and political actors in general] can exploit’
(1989, p.74).
Skilled politicians have been manipulating the media in this fashion
for decades, as Daniel Boorstin’s 1962 discussion of the ‘pseudo-
event’ makes clear, but there are undoubtedly greater opportunities
to do so in an era when the news space to be filled has expanded so
dramatically. The astute politician will know, for example, that in a
situation where media organisations have finite resources of time
and money, where deadlines are tight and exclusives increasingly
important, there is much to be gained by ensuring the journalists’
ease of supply, providing, as Schlesinger and Tumber put it, an
‘information subsidy’ (1994).
A media event which is timed to meet the deadlines for first editions
or primetime news bulletins will have more likelihood of being

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