0000000000603195
AUTHOR
David P. Fan
Predictions of the public agenda from television coverage
This study develops a methodology to show how German TV news in 1986 could be used to predict time trends in the public agenda for energy supply, health care, and other topics. A major influence in that year was the Chernobyl accident in the former Soviet Union. The direct result was an increase in agenda concern for energy supply. The findings showed how coverage of that incident and other issues exerted a combined influence on the public agenda.
Spin Doctors in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany: Metacommunication about Media Manipulation
This study develops a new concept in political communication theory called metacommunication. It argues that metacommunication (1) describes a new, third stage in election coverage after issue and strategy coverage; (2) reflects the mass media's new role as a political institution in the third age of political communication; and (3) can be seen as the news media's response to a new, third force in news making: professional political PR. Metacommunication is defined as the news media's self-referential reflections on the nature of the interplay between political public relations and political journalism. While metacoverage can take two forms, self-referential news and process news, the pres…
Spin doctoring in British and German election campaigns: How the press is being confronted with a new quality of political PR
The 1997 British and 1998 German general elections showed striking parallels and distinctive differences in the way Blair and Schroeder delivered their campaigns and defeated long-sitting conservative governments. Of vital importance was a new quality of political public relations called `spin doctoring'. In this, the British Labour Party served as a kind of role model for the German Social Democratic Party. This article traces the origins and different meanings of `spin doctoring' in both countries, distinguishes between media-related and non-media-related spin activities and analyses it against the background of the specific national contexts. The aims and methods of political spin doctor…