Who’s Setting the Postdevolution Agenda in Northern Ireland?

Abstract

The literature on international trends in political communication suggests that governments and political parties around the world have been modernizing and professionalizing their media relations operations. The key characteristics of a successful “modern” communications strategy are centralization, coordination, efficiency, and responsiveness. This article examines the extent to which those trends have permeated the parties and the new devolved administration in Northern Ireland. Much of the relevant literature has suggested that the government has generally set the media agenda in Northern Ireland. However, this article presents findings that indicate that it is the more radical of the main nationalist and unionist parties in Northern Ireland that have been most successful in modernizing their approach to political communication since devolution. The article draws parallels between the evolution of media relations in the parties in question—Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party—and the modernizing of political communication within New Labour in Britain. The article also compares the media machine of the Northern Ireland Executive to that of another devolved administration in the United Kingdom, the Scottish Executive. It finds that the Scottish Executive has gone further in professionalizing its approach to media relations.