Prime Ministers and the Media: Issues of Power and Control

Issues of power and control the endless efforts of political leaders to be understood as they would like lie at the core of this revealing new study. At a time when media saturate politics, how and how successfully can prime ministers manage their public communication? Sometimes they dominate media, like Tony Blair in the late 1990s; at others they are victims, like John Major before him.

After examining what the job of prime minister demands of its holders in the way of public communication, and what resources are available, the book goes on to trace the growth of the Downing Street press office from inconspicuous beginnings to contentious prominence. But many factors affecting a prime minister s public image are not open to direct control: the book explores a contrasting selection of these, including political rumours, political places (the nature of a capital city ), political cartoons (a range of which is reproduced in the book) and media barons. The focus is on contemporary and there are frequent international comparisons, especially with the USA.

List of Figures.

List of Maps.

List of Tables.

Preface.

Introduction: Prime Minister, Communication, Power, Control.

1. Public Communication and the Prime Minister s Tasks.

2. Public Communication as a Prime Ministerial Resource.

3. Public Communication: Turning Authority into Power.

4. The Capital City as News Environment.

5. Harlots Revisited: Media Barons, Politics and Prime Ministers.

6. The Rise of the Downing Street Press Secretary.

7. The Downing Street Press Secretary: Getting into a Spin?.

8. Prime Ministers and Press Conferences.

9. Grapevine Politics: Political Rumours.

10. Drawing Blood? Prime Ministers and Political Cartoons.

Index.

Colin Seymour–Ure has been researching and writing about political communication and mass media since the 1960s. He is Emeritus Professor of Government and former Dean of Social Sciences at the University of Kent, Canterbury. His publications include The British Press and Broadcasting since 1945 (Blackwell Publishing, second edition 1996) and a biography of the cartoonist David Low (1985). He is a Council member of the Hansard Society, and he used to chair the Independent Television Commission s committee responsible for advising on advertising rules.

"This is a fascinating, authoritative and eminently readable history of the changing relationship between prime ministers and the media. As one of the country s leading historians of politics and the press, Colin Seymour–Ure offers some highly original insights in a book which should be required reading for anyone with an interest in politics or political communication." Steven Barnett, University of Westminster <!––end––>

"Nevertheless, the book is clearly written enough to make it a good eaching tool and it contains enough insights (and historical nuggets) to satisfy an academic audience too." Political Studies Review