Media management
the relationship between politicians and the media, and more importantly between the government and the media, will obviously involve a struggle between what are apparently two different sets of interests. The journalist is supposed to be attempting to seek and present the facts, while the politician will want to ensure that a news story reflects the "message' that he or she wishes to convey. There is nothing particularly new the attempt of the political elites to try to control media representations, as is revealed various accounts of the development and growth of political public relations from the early years of the twentieth century onwards (Pearson 1992; McNair 1994; L'Etang 1999) However, this discussion will focus on the role of public relations over the past two decades period which witnessed a rapid transformation in the role and public relations within political culture. This expansion of public relations activity has, unsurprisingly, been accompanied by an increasing reliance upon management strategies.
Some commentators (Franklin McNair have pointed to the increasing use of the 'soundbite' and the "pseudo-event" as key strategies used by politicians to control media representations of them and their policies.