This book looks at the ways in which prime ministers manage and fail to manage their public communication.A timely examination of the ways in which prime ministers manage and fail to manage their public communication. Original in scope, covering political rumours, political cartoons and capital cities, in addition to more familiar topics. Sets contemporary analysis of Downing Street press secretaries, media barons and press conferences in fuller historical context than usual. Draws on public records, private papers and interviews by the author dating back to the 1960s.

Product Description: Prime Ministers and the Media: Issues of Power and Control (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: The essays collected here explore the popular press since 1896--from Harmsworth's Daily Mail to Maxwell's Mirror. The history of the popular press has always been about more than big headlines and big profit margins. Personal ambition, partisan loyalty, institutional rivalry, and public accountability join commercial opportunism as the book's recurrent themes...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

This is a concise history of the press and broadcasting in Britain after World War II, from a time when the phrase "mass media" was barely used to the Maxwell and Murdoch era of international media conglomerates. The book traces changes in what was available and what people used - the size and ownership of the national and provincial press; the growth of television and the impact of ITV; the decline and revival of radio; the continuities and differences in what people read, looked at, listened to and liked. Beyond that, the analysis explores the often queasy relations of media and government. Television increasingly elbowed into politics, while politicians worked harder at news management. Governments became more active in media policy - on press mergers, new TV channels, traditional questions of freedom of information. Such development gave extra point to the issue of media accountability. How did the new baronies justify themselves to the public? Which was the greater threat by the end of the 1980s: abuse of power by the media or abuse of media by the government?

Product Description: Pt. 1. Power and communication. The sources of power -- The scope and domain of power -- Power, communication and secrecy -- Challenges to the power-holder -- When is power successful? -- Pt. 2. The president and communication. The impossibility of silence -- Three levels of presidential public communications -- Head of state and chief executive -- Versions of the president : personality and office-holder -- Versions of the president : individual and institution -- Presidential platforms -- Symbolic communication -- Pt...read more

Discusses the production of mass-media effects and their influence on various types of political relationships and functions and provides case studies of incidents of media impact on British politics