Strategic Media Management

Abstract

With the importance of broadcast and print media, and its prioritisation by parties, as the backdrop, this chapter focuses on the relative importance of the leader debates and interviews, the impartial television news and the partisan print media, and explores the role media played in shaping and translating the marketing strategies of the parties and their leaders into news items for public consumption. The data presented allows us to draw some conclusions as to the relative successes of the various parties’ media management strategies and the impact mainstream media outlets might have on the outcome of election contests irrespective of the sophistication and skill committed to the party’s marketing strategies.