Page 97 - An Introduction to Political Communication Second Edition

AN INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

credibility of such politician-columnists as Ken Livingstone, Bernard
Ingham or Norman Tebbit, is founded on their status as political
‘insiders’. They, as opposed to other politicians, are employed as
columnists because their names have audience pulling power, and
because their plain-speaking, extremist viewpoints are assumed to
help circulation figures.

THE FEATURE

Another important form of political journalism is the feature article.
While not, of course, restricted to coverage of politics, the feature
article is the arena for a more detailed exploration of political affairs
than straight news allows. Features frequently accompany news
stories, expanding on issues and events which a news story can
only report in a summary fashion. Like the columnist, the feature
writer will enlist if possible the aid of political insiders to obtain
reliable material, although the feature must stick closely to the
conventions of objectivity described above. When addressing a
political theme, the feature writer must convince the reader of his
or her ‘objectivity’ as a journalist, while at the same time pressing
a personal agenda. Alternatively, the research for a feature (the
data upon which its objectivity will be founded) can be gained by
on-the-spot interviews with participants in the events underlying a
current political issue. When, for example, a journalist wishes to
draw attention to the failings of government foreign policy towards
a particular region, he or she may travel there, record the scene
and the views of its inhabitants, and fashion a piece which condemns
the government, if not always explicitly. Among the most notable
political feature writers working in the British press are Paul Foot,
formerly of the Daily Mirror, now of the Guardian and Private
Eye, and John Pilger.
Features straddle the line in political journalism between the hard
news which is the staple of a newspaper, and the column, where its
‘priestly pundits’ wax eloquent (or indignant) about the events of
the day. The best feature writers function, like Foot and Pilger, as
pundits and reporters, combining the research skills of good
journalism with the analytical and intellectual prowess of the top
pundits.

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