Page 93 - An Introduction to Political Communication Third Edition

POLITICS IN THE AGE OF MEDIATION

to report political events accurately, fairly and independently. In
concrete terms, the objectivity ethic has gradually evolved into a set
of signifying practices and conventions which, when present in a
piece of journalism, are intended to secure the audience’s endorse-
ment of its ‘truthfulness’.
These practices include the explicit separation of fact from
opinion; the inclusion in coverage of all opposing sides in a debate
(excluding, usually, terrorists and other non-constitutional actors);
and the validation of journalistic narratives by the quotation of
reliable, authoritative sources. It is fair to say that for most
journalists, the most reliable and authoritative sources when
constructing a political story are the established politicians, their
senior civil servants and secretaries, and other leading figures in
state and public organs. If, moreover, these sources have embraced
the lessons of the previous paragraphs – that they should actively
seek to supply the media with material – then not only are they the
most reliable and authoritative (a culturo-political factor) but also
the most convenient and accessible from the journalists’ perspective
(an organisational reality). The professional requirements of
objectivity are thus reinforced by the technical constraints imposed
by the news-gathering process.
Conversely, those political actors who lack sophisticated public
relations machinery and are not a part of the established institutions
of mainstream political discourse will tend to be neither especially
credible to the journalists nor particularly convenient as news
sources. In Chapter 8 we discuss how many non-establishment (and
indeed anti-establishment) organisations have learnt to combat
these ‘biasing’ features of media production with a variety of
alternative public relations strategies. Although the resources
required for media manipulation (if I may use that term without
implying disapproval) are unequally distributed throughout
society, it is possible, as we shall see, for the PR ‘poor’ to
compensate for their absence to some extent by deploying skill and
entrepreneurship.

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