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The sociology of spin: An investigation into the uses, practices and consequences of political communication
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This article explores the uses and consequences of political communication in Australia. It considers the different types of government ‘spin doctors’ and explores the dimensions of the ‘Australian public relations state’. The article then examines the relationship between the media, political communication and democracy. It subsequently develops a typology of overt and covert practices that suggests that there should be an analytical and ethical distinction between ‘spin’ and ‘political communication’. The article concludes that media advisers are ‘key activists’ within the public sphere and that good political communication gives people the capacity for informed citizenship. Ultimately this discussion demonstrates that political communication has both democratic and anti-democratic aspects, and it offers a conceptual framework for exploring communicative practices and their consequences.
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... Neill, for instance, discovered 10 moral issues that people who work in this area must resolve. Some scholars state that telling lies (information distortion) is the inevitable aspect of political PR practice [53][54][55]. Moreover, it is claimed that the question of ethics codification arose among PR specialists only because of the need to receive more credit and support for their role in the eyes of the public [56,57]. ...
This paper offers a multidimensional theoretical scheme to analyze professional ethics in the field of political public relations. We suggest investigating the decisions of these professionals using moral foundations theory because human ethical reasoning is contextual, and the examination of ethics in a one-dimensional manner as previous researchers have done overlooks the complexity of the moral choices that such professionals make. The prospects of the proposed theoretical approach are demonstrated on 16 interviews with post-soviet Russian political PR industry leaders that were conducted from March 2018 to April 2020. Our empirical findings show that Russian political PR specialists employ all moral foundations, however, in their narratives the "care/harm" and "authority/respect" foundations were not mentioned very often. Overall, this paper makes a critical contribution to research on professional ethics in political public relations, and it provides important insight into the specifics of moral reasoning in the Russian political PR industry that is insufficiently described in the current literature.
... While this data and the case studies discussed are from Australia, the research is of international significance, as the strategies and tactics used have been globalized; dispersed by multinational conglomerates and the movement of senior practitioners and their ideas (Dunlap & McCright, 2011). This discussion begins by exploring the research on rhetorical approaches to lobbying, before then considering theories capable of explaining the structural factors potentially predisposing practitioners to unethical and covert activities (Hobbs, 2016). ...
This article develops a new framework, conflict ecology, for predicting and critiquing specific lobbying strate-gies. This framework is applied in an analysis of interviews conducted with senior lobbyists from the mining andenergy sector in Australia, which has proven to be especially effective in opposing and defeating new taxes andlegislation intended to reduce carbon pollution. This analysis shows that an industry suffering a legitimacy gapwill likely possess an intransigent or resistant worldview. Practitioners directing these campaigns see their roleas ethically justified and necessary to defeat oppositional publics. This worldview gives rise to power strategiesthat reward allies and punish adversaries, with emotive and targeted issues communication used to apply furtherpressure to the legislature as part of outsider lobbying campaigns. Ultimately, this study considers the extent towhich these lobbying strategies servecommunitasends proposed in the theory of the fully functioning society.
... They usually contrast it with the good one, the on-therecord communication, in a black-white split. In such simplistic juxtaposition, off-therecord briefings are, for example, covert and opaque, and on-the-record communication is overt and transparent (Gaber, 2000;Hobbs, 2015;Tiffen, 1999). ...
This article pursues three major goals. The first is a critical one. It confronts the widespread bias that off-the-record communication briefings are inferior – including professionally and ethically – to other techniques of communication, especially to its counterpart of on-the-record communication. The second goal is a practical one. Discussed are cases of both failed and successful off-the-record strategies, from which basic rules – prerequisites for such interaction – are extracted. And the third goal is a theoretical one. Off-the-record is conceptualised as more indirect and, in this sense, more strategic mode of communication than its counterpart. Affinity rather than trust is the core quality of the source-media relations here. A new distinction is made between advertising and public relations. On the record, one controls the message but due to the obvious self-interest of the source – attributable or unattributable – its credibility is low. Off the record, one cannot control the message, but other and more credible influencers take ownership of it and increase its impact. On the record is advertising; off the record is public relations.
... The core issue here is the triumph of tactics over strategy; the spin doctor's default logic is to "win" the daily news cycle, as measured by the total number of news stories discussing the government in a favourable or neutral tone (McKnight, 2016;Hobbs, 2016). But this can lead to a mentality where the "exigencies of the moment" trump the creation of a consistent long-term narrative supported by sound policy (p. ...
There were no successful leadership challenges in the major political parties in Australia in the 1960s, either at the state or federal level of government. But since 1970, seventy-three leaders have been forcibly deposed by their party colleagues, including several prime ministers. This turnover of leaders is not the norm in any other advanced democracy, with Australia having five times as many leaderships coups at a national level (Tiffen, 2017, p.225). Moreover, such instability is seemingly entrenched. Australia’s representative democracy, one of the world’s oldest, has entered the era of the ‘disposable leader’ (Tiffen, 2017, p.225)
While existing studies have addressed the importance of political profile for media visibility, far fewer works have examined how speaking in parliament is associated with media attention—an important mechanism in reaching out to voters. This paper tests how the amount and particularly the style of parliamentary speech are related to media attention. We employ a unique data set that covers all parliamentary transcripts for the 2011–2015 and 2015–2019 parliamentary terms in Estonia and online media content from that period (~ 2.7 million news articles). We assume that MPs can use parliamentary speech as a tool to foster personal attention. First, the results show that MPs who speak in parliament receive more media attention than those who do not, and speaking more means more media visibility. Second, the media pays more attention to rank‐and‐file MPs who use more negative, complex language and more singular and plural first‐person pronouns.
This study develops a definition of political public relations that incorporates concepts from leadership communication and crisis communication. It then applies this theoretical framework to the communication strategies employed by New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison during their early responses to the COVID-19 crisis. Qualitative content analysis was used to examine the frequency of various framing strategies shared via Twitter and Facebook, which aimed to persuade appre- hensive citizens to comply with unprecedented stay-at-home orders to suppress virus transmission. The findings revealed that both leaders employed communication strategies consistent with models of effective communi- cation during a major crisis but had notable differences in style, tone, and engagement. For instance, Ardern’s greater use of rational strategies, performed authenticity, and empathy in her social media posts enabled her to reach a larger audience than Morrison. Ultimately, this paper argues that political public relations should encompass leadership and leadership communication to better understand how political leaders can manage future crises.
Studijos autoriai, remdamiesi literatūros analizės ir empirinių tyrimų duomenimis, šia studija
siekia tikslo – atskleisti priežastis ir išryškinti trikdžius, kuriuos turi įvertinti bei pašalinti Lietuvos savivaldybių politikai ir administratoriai, jei mūsų šalis nori įtvirtinti piliečių e. dalyvavimą,
kuris yra e. valdysenos esmė. Mokslinei analizei pasirinktas savivaldos lygmuo, laikantis nuostatos, kad vietos valdžia, būdama arčiausiai piliečių, geriausiai atpažįsta specifinius vietos bendruomenės bruožus ir gali į juos atsižvelgti, modeliuodama e. dalyvavimą konkrečioje vietovėje.
Purpose
Meta reviews are central for mapping the state of the field, consolidating the heterogeneous public relations body of knowledge, and pointing to new potential research directions. Habermas is one of the most influential contemporary social theorists and his work has repeatedly been used in public relations scholarship. While some have maintained that his work has been most influential in the development of public relations theory, this stream of research has never been reviewed empirically.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors present a bibliometric literature review of 263 public relations research articles published between 1980 and 2016 that cite and use Habermas’ work. A network analysis of these publications based on the technique of bibliographic coupling was used to identify common forms of application, research themes, as well as patterns of impact.
Findings
Results show that the use of Habermas has grown significantly, specifically in the recent decade. At the same time, researchers have a narrow focus specifically on earlier developments in the theory. Finally, we discover three main topical research clusters that have been influenced by the theory: public relations and the public sphere, dialogic stakeholder relationships, as well as public relations and communication ethics.
Originality/value
The findings map out an important stream of scholarship in the field by showing where public relations scholars have been and where the research community has not ventured yet. Based on the results of our analysis, the authors propose directions for research to advance future theory development in public relations using Habermas’ work.
The news media is traditionally the watchdog of democracy. Today, it is also one of the most pervasive global industries. In this lively and accessible book, Schultz systematically analyses the role of journalism in Australia and the scope of its democratic purpose. She examines key news stories, and looks at the attitudes of Australian journalists themselves. The fourth estate remains the ideal of most journalists, but the reality has been impaired by the increasing concentration of media ownership and by political, ethical and occupational interests. While Australian journalism has become bolder and more investigative, increasing commercialism and decreasing ethical standards have left the public sceptical. Schultz argues for a revival of the fourth estate based on journalistic independence and poltical autonomy, together with increased accountability and responsiveness.
Mass Media, Politics and Democracy provides a broad ranging overview of all aspects of the relationship between the media and politics. Drawing its examples from a wide range of developed liberal democracies, the book combines an accessible account of the political impact and regulation of the mass media today, with an assessment of the democratic potential and anti-democratic dangers of new media technologies.
