Page 152 - An Introduction to Political Communication Third Edition

POLITICAL PUBLIC RELATIONS

have come to believe in the importance of ‘free media’ in achieving
their goals, as opposed to the paid-for variety (Levy, 1989). By ‘free
media’ is meant those spaces and outlets in which political actors
may gain exposure and coverage, without having to pay media
organisations for the privilege.
Gaining access to free media is not without costs, of course. It
requires a more or less professional apparatus of public relations
advisers, which must be paid for by the political organisation
concerned. Constructing or manufacturing the events and contexts
through which politicians can acquire free media access may be
expensive in money and time. Nevertheless, we will use the term
‘free media’ here to distinguish those practices which fall under the
broad headings of ‘political marketing’ and ‘public relations’ from
those of the advertising world described in Chapter 6.
Politicians like free media because, unlike advertising, their role
in it is not that of authorship. When a politician is reported on
the 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. Tony
Blair’s frequent appearances on access programmes such as
Question Time and the Nicky Campbell radio show are calculated
to have the same quality of authenticity and spontaneity, especially
when, as in the tradition of British access broadcasting (McNair
et al., 2002), members of the public are able to engage directly
with the politician. 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. Broad-
cast 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

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