Government-media Relations Research Articles

Navigating Government-Media Relations in the Pursuit of Democracy

Navigating Government-Media Relations in the Pursuit of Democracy

No escape from the No.10. bunker? UK government news management under siege: John Major (1990–97) and Boris Johnson (2019–2022)

PurposeThis study draws parallels between the Major and Johnson eras to reclaim a discursive space beyond the media and political battlefields to examine long-term systemic failure of government PR.Design/methodology/approachAs part of a wider study into government communications from 1979 to date, this paper draws on evidence from government archives from the 1990s, as well as contemporary accounts, official documents, media accounts, memoirs and biographies, to examine the PR record of two Conservative administrations divided by three decades.FindingsNews management during the Major premiership is worth serious scrutiny, not just as an interlude between two media-friendly Prime Ministers, Thatcher and Blair, but in comparison to Boris Johnson's struggle to contain the news narrative between 2019 and 2022. Both administrations experienced terminal reputational crises during their closing years but their means of managing the news were counter-productive and damaging to public trust (65).Practical implicationsDoes this failure in public communication illustrate a systemic dysfunction in government-media relations and, if so, what is the role of government PR in these circumstances?Originality/valueThis article uses a comparison between fixed and moving variables associated with two very different administrations to identify the causes of ongoing systemic failure in government communication.

PERANAN HUMAS PEMERINTAH KOTA SURABAYA DALAM PENGELOLAAN MEDIA RELATIONS SEBAGAI SARANA KOMUNIKASI KEPADA PUBLIK

This research is motivated by the role of public relations in the Surabaya City Governmentmedia relations activities as a means of communication with the public. Part of Surabaya citygovernment public relations in the field of information has a duty as a bridge of communication andinformation between the Government of the city of Surabaya with the community. This study aims todescribe the communication activities conducted by the Government public relations city of Surabayain superior Service and information embodies quality, improve information channels and aspiration.The theory is the theory of communication and public information Model theory Harold Lasswell.Research methods used in this research was qualitative research with type a descriptive. Thetechnique of collecting data through observation, in-depth interviews and documentation. Researchresults find communication activity conducted in Surabaya city government public relation Activitiesthe management of Media Relations as a means of communication to the public using a one-waycommunication, where is Surabaya city government public relations role as journalists indisseminating information to the public, and controls the news or information to mass media.In application of Surabaya City Government Public Relations are already maximizing the duties andfunctions of Public Relations Surabaya City Government in achieving and maintaining excellentservice and quality information, and to improve information channels and public aspirations, andmaintain harmonious relations with the media and the public.

The role of social media in freeing Botswana from state control of the media

ABSTRACTThis paper argues that social media is important in any state which claims to be a democracy and that failure to have robust media involvement in the democratic process is likely to jeopardise democratic principles. Although Botswana has been crowned as a successful story of African democracy over time, it is argued here that she is a liberal democracy marred by some shortcomings – especially those that have to do with government-media relations. The paper contends that the media (both government and private) is an indisputable partner in the deliberative democratic process, which should be nurtured and celebrated. A case is made that relations between the Botswana government and the country's media houses has of late become hostile, as evidenced by the arrests and detentions of journalists. Premised on deliberative democratic theory, the article argues that a state which claims to be democratic, such as Botswana, needs to respect basic fundamental principles of democracy, such as freedom of the press.

Who framed the F-35? Government–media relations in Canadian defence procurement

How did the Canadian news media cover the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter purchase, proposed by the Harper government in mid-2010? Under what conditions did the media tend to index government talking points as opposed to providing space to oppositional voices and viewpoints? Content analysis of headlines and full text transcripts in five mainstream newspapers revealed news coverage that was mostly negative and that it became more negative as consensus within official decision circles dissipated. Overall, the findings fit most closely with the predictions of the cascading activation model of government–media relations, while also underscoring the importance of factors specific to the Canadian context.

Mediatised local government: social media activity and media strategies among local government officials 1989–2010

The article examines how local government officials in Sweden use social media and to what extent the emergence of social media has altered the relationship to conventional news media. The article examines the development of local government-media relations across time on the basis of a unique survey-based data set comparing the local political and administrative leadership’s media strategies in 1989 and 2010. The 2010 survey also included questions on how local officials in Sweden use social media in their work, that is, Facebook, Twitter and blogs. The results show that local officials have appropriated social media in their work, but only to a moderate extent. Local officials engage in social media if and when the local government becomes the target of social media scrutiny. Our study also demonstrates that social media have not replaced conventional media as a means of communication with constituencies. Indeed, officials who are active social media users have more contacts with conventional media compared to less active officials. Social media thus contribute to an intensification of the mediatisation of local governance rather than replacing conventional media in local political communication.

Government–media relations in Tunisia: a paradigm shift in the culture of governance?

The removal of the Ben Ali regime from power in Tunisia raised fundamental questions over the future role and structure of the country's media. A new structural relationship with government would have to reflect changes in ownership patterns and a new narrative about the media's future function. The government too had to adjust to a new relationship with the media in a participatory political system in transition. This paper discusses how and why these concepts have developed in the way that they have. The learning processes involved have been more difficult than first imagined, especially for government, and the environment in which the media has operated has become more difficult, a factor which has affected, both the media and its relationship with government. The key events have been elections and the consequences of Ennahda's victory, the assassinations of two prominent political activists and Tunisia's new constitution approved in January 2014. Connected with these events has been the worsening security environment with the growth in salafi–jihadi extremism and Tunisia's declining economic fortunes. Yet perhaps the most difficult issue has been the actual development of media–government relations. Media professionals had assumed that the relationship under the former regime, in which the media served as the obedient handmaiden to government, would be abandoned and replaced by a genuinely free information space automatically encouraged by government. In reality, the coalition government, and its successor have realised the utility of a media subservient to government and have been reluctant to support proper freedom of information and communication. In short, they have repeated the practices of their predecessor, justifying such authoritarian action as an entitlement of government. In reality, they have revealed their own anxieties about media freedom and fears over the dissemination of opposition opinions. The arbitrary practices of authoritarian rule had not been eradicated and the media was still seen as a weapon in a political struggle, rather than as an essential vehicle of public participation in the construction of a new political order. This is, therefore, the major problem that must now be tackled by Tunisia's new media.

Melodrama, reality and crisis: The government–media relationship in Hugo Chávez’s Bolivarian Revolution

Government–media relationships are both symptomatic and constitutive of a nation. In Venezuela the history of Hugo Chávez’s revolutionary government cannot be written without paying attention to its complex relationship with the media in a country in which political polarization defines national life. Existing scholarship about the Chávez–media saga provides analyses at the macro level. We lack, however, studies that illuminate the micro level of the everyday life of mass media in Venezuela’s changing context. Based on 12 years of research (1999–2011), this article examines government–media relations through the study of five successful telenovelas. Each show was written and broadcast at a time that defines a period in the history between Chávez and the media. These five case studies track changes in the legal framework, document instances of self-censorship, tease out the particulars of the difficult coexistence of government and private media, and illuminate the consequences for the writing, production, consumption and international sales of Venezuelan telenovelas, and for Venezuelan television in general.

The media and democratic consolidation in Nigeria: An overview of government–media relations, 1999–2009

Relations between the media and government in Nigeria have historically been conflictual. Nevertheless, the Nigerian media has played important roles in the country’s struggles to free itself from the shackles of colonialism and military rule. A national desire for disengagement from decades of military dictatorship, however, took away the usually critical edge of the Nigerian media once the democratic dispensation got underway. But as the post-transition euphoria gave way to realism, government and media relapsed into their old animosity. This article argues that the initial indifference to certain undemocratic tendencies – especially of the Obasanjo administration in the name of not ‘rocking the boat’ of the new-found democracy – did set a new ambience, resulting in government becoming too sensitive to criticism. The article posits that the initial ambivalence of the media towards the government could have inflicted more harm on the democratic project than good, and was responsible for the manner in which the government responded by the time it regained its critical edge. It contends that the media should at all times remain faithful to its watchdog role, hereby assisting in strengthening the country’s democracy.

How China-based foreign reporters' aggressiveness changed: The honeymoon effect of the Chinese government's media relations strategies

This study analyzes how the aggressiveness of China-based foreign reporters when questioning Chinese officials changed as a function of the macrolevel international media relations strategies of the Chinese government. Over the past decade, the Chinese government has increasingly relaxed regulatory policies for foreign reporters and gained knowledge of modern public relations, particularly media relations. This study found that the level of foreign reporters' aggressiveness did not decrease in a linear fashion but rather displayed a ‘V’ shape. Implications for future initiatives by the Chinese government regarding foreign reporters are also discussed.

Quantifying government media relations in Queensland

This article draws upon historical and contemporary data to attempt to identify key issues in government media relations and to discuss the processes and challenges involved in attempting to quantify the expenditure on this activity in the state of Queensland in the modern era. A combination of investigative journalism and academic research methods have been used to position government media relations as a practice and to gauge expenditure, staffing, and cost to the taxpayer of government media relations in Queensland. The Electoral and Administrative Review Commission’s Report on review of government media and information services (EARC, 1993) was the first comprehensive measure of such costs and since then only some insights were offered by premiers Beattie and Bligh in 2006 and 2008 in response to parliamentary questions on notice. This article reviews these costs, canvasses expert estimates of the real cost of government media relations, and debates some of the competing interests at stake.

Editorial

Welcome to the second issue of Public Communication Review. Although our journal is still in its infancy, we are delighted to be able to bring together an edition that reflects the breadth and diversity of research and practical work that falls under the banner of public communication.
 
 Our theme for this edition revolves around the notion of conversations. Public communication cannot exist without a relationship between the communicator and its audience. However, as the articles in this edition clearly demonstrate, this relationship does not flow in a single direction. Effective public communication requires two-way interaction and engagement.
 
 Jim Macnamara’s article, ‘“Emergent” media and public communication’, sets the tone for this edition. In this overview of the literature on new forms of interactive social media , Macnamara notes that attitudes towards ‘new media’ continue to be informed by the past and that focus should be on practices rather than only technologies . His call for public communication practitioners and scholars to recognise the fundamental centrality of conversations within these ‘new media’ is taken up by the other contributors in this edition of PCR.
 
 The first of these critical accounts of public communication is Mark Pearson and Hamish McLean’s examination of the recent attempts by the Queensland government to engage in a dialogue with its publics. Examining the blurry line between public information and political persuasion, Pearson and McLean demonstrate that government media relations should not be analysed as a simple one-way conversation, but rather a series of conversations. 
 
 In his discussion of anti-smoking campaigns and its impact on young smokers, Jim Mahoney investigates what appears to be a one-way conversation. Finding that the current approach is not working, Mahoney urges the creators of anti-smoking campaigns to listen to their audience and engage with them, rather than simply preaching to them and hoping that they will simply absorb anti-smoking messages.
 
 Erik Trosby’s article analyses a conversation that is yet to happen (and one that few of his respondents hope to engage in) – crisis communication within sport. His focus is Australia’s A-League football competition which has managed to avoid the crises that have dogged the NRL and the AFL in recent times. Exploring some of the reasons for this difference, Trosby reveals that A-League teams nevertheless remain vulnerable to such crises and, more worryingly, are not well poised to meet them. 
 
 Our inaugural ‘Talking Practically’ section features a speech delivered by John Bevins to the Australian Centre for Public Communication. Having recently retired from a long and illustrious career in Australia’s advertising industry, Bevins reflected on some of the lessons he learned during his time in advertising. In this informative and entertaining piece, Bevins keeps with the theme of this edition by highlighting the fundamental importance of empathy and engagement in advertising. Without this conversation, advertising, like all public communication, will fail.
 
 And finally, our inaugural reviewer, Rodney Gray, looks at Viral Change by Leandro Herrero. Here, we can see how conversations also form an important component of managing change within organisations.
 
 We thank you for your support and would like to remind you that contributions on any issue related to public communication are heartily encouraged. 
 
 
 Robert Crawford PhD Jim Macnamara PhD
 Co-editor Co-editor

Muzzling the watchdog

What silences an emergent watchdog press, even after that press has overcome great adversity to bring a form of journalism to mainstream news supporting democratization and social justice? Argentina presents an interesting case study in terms of changes in watchdog performance in a democratic and market-oriented context. A content analysis of three major Argentine news outlets from 1985 to 2005 first demonstrates that observable changes have taken place in mainstream watchdog reporting. Then, from interviews with journalists, media managers and media analysts, results indicate perceptions that public opinion shifts, media economy fluctuations, organizational strategies and government media relations facilitated or hindered the free practice of watchdog journalism in mainstream media. These findings illustrate the effects of forces working at the institutional and individual level that influence media performance, rather than simply at the environmental. Rather than a paradox, the Argentine case has implications for press freedom in other democracies.

Pacific Media Meeting the Challenge of the 1990s

AbstractVast distances, scattered populations, tradition, and missionary influences complicate government-media relations in the region. Two important media organizations exist to assist print and broadcast journalists in their sometimes sensitive tasks. The Raratonga Declaration of 1990 has yet to be implemented, but there are some encouraging signs that a measure of trust is emerging.

Fractured decision making: Sunshine laws and the colliding groles of media and government

The advent of open meetings laws combined with changes in the style and nature of political news reporting have transformed elected officials and the media into open antagonists in the policy-making process, particularly during times of controversy or conflict. Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) techniques, involving policy makers, disputants and representatives of the press hold some promise for improving government-media relations.

Authoritarian Controls and News Media in the Philippines

On the evening of 20 September 1972, Chibu Lagman filed what would be his last news report for Channel 5 television in Manila. Lagman, now living in the United States, recalled in an interview that that final story was an account of an aborted ambush of Philippine Defence Minister Juan Ponce Enrile. Lagman said his report portrayed the ambush attempt as a staged event, intended by the government to make people think there were subversive plots to assassinate government leaders and overthrow the regime of President Marcos. The next day, 21 September 1972, President Marcos declared martial law and closed down all the print and broadcast facilities in the Philippines. In so doing, Mr Marcos charged that lawless elements, their cadres, fellow-travellers, friends, sympathizers and supporters were using the mass media to disseminate deliberately slanted and overly exaggerated news stories and news commentaries as well as false, vile, foul and scurrilous statements, utterances, writings and pictures. Chibu Lagman says that his report on the ambush was among those used by the authorities as examples of anti-government reporting. The declaration of martial law was a watershed for press freedom in the Philippines. Another one came in 1983 after the assassination of former Senator Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. The dynamics of government-media relations in the Philippines ranges from a time less than fifteen years ago when the Filipino press was considered one of the freest in the world, to recently when it was denounced as one of the most repressed, and to the present time when there is a resurgence of popular anti-government publications. Such a colourful scenario provides an interesting illustration of the effect of authoritarian controls on news media. Philippine press freedom was modelled after the constitutional provisions of the American colonialists. The Philippine Constitution still contains a Bill of Rights in which it is stated that no law shall be passed abridging freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the Government for redress of grievances. The Philippines had a long reputation for having the freest press in Asia. A 1966 study by Ralph L. Lowenstein for the Freedom of Information Center at the University of Missouri categorized the Philippine media system among the most free in the world. In the 1960s, the Philippine Government was enacting or seriously considering legislation designed to protect journalists' sources of 34

Government-Media Relations in the Philippines

Government-Media Relations in the Philippines

Government-Media Relations in the Philippines

ONE OF THE FIRST STEPS President Marcos took upon declaring martial law on September 21, 1972, was to take control of the nation's mass media and to jail prominent journalists, editors, and publishers as well as many persons working in radio and television. Marcos closed all but one of Manila's 16 daily newspapers and shut down six of the city's seven television stations, allowing only the Voice of the Philippines and the Far East Broadcasting Company to continue radio service.' Strict censorship was imposed on all news and the Department of Public Information (DPI) issued guidelines requiring newspapers and radio and television stations to print and broadcast only accurate news that reflected positively on the government and the military. Editorials and society news were banned outright. These rules also applied to overseas dispatches until early October when a gradual relaxation commenced in response to pressure from foreign news agencies and foreign correspondents.

Civil Liberties and the Mass Media under Martial Law in the Philippines

IN THE TWO YEARS since declaration of martial law in Philippines, President Ferdinand E. Marcos and his supporters have often argued that loss of civil liberties is necessary price Filipinos must pay for social order and economic progress.1 It is even fashionable nowadays for government officials to disparage relevance of liberal democracy to fundamental Philippine problems. Peter Kann of Wall Street Journal has written that the code words now seem to be 'effective administration' and of course 'economic development.' . . . It's almost as if these worthy aims are considered these days to be incompatible with civil liberties and right to vote.2 If loss of civil liberties is only temporary, many Filipinos apparently are willing to pay price. But after two years of martial law, we may ask how long is temporary? What has been gained by curtailment of civil liberties? Any analysis of these questions ought to begin by examining government's argument that it was indeed necessary to suspend civil liberties in order to implement basic reforms. This article examines this proposition with regard to one of most basic of civil liberties in Philippines, freedom of press. Few Philippine institutions have been transformed as drastically as mass media. Before martial law was declared, Philippine press was widely regarded as one of freest in Asia. Since then, press and all other mass communications media have been put under strict control of Marcos government. Why was it necessary to suspend freedom of press? What necessary reforms were hindered by Old Society press? Do these changes justify loss of civil liberties? On eve of martial law, government-media relations were highly unstable and polarized. Journalists themselves disagreed on proper role of press. Many advocated freedom of press as a fundamental