PRIME MINISTERS AND THE MEDIA - ISSUES OF POWER AND CONTROL

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.

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.

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.