3 Public relations, politics and the media
Ian Somerville
Chapter aims
This chapter focuses on an increasingly important phenomenon in contemporary democratic societies, namely, the intersection of politics, public relations and the media. The growth of the use of specialist media managers by politicians, and in particular by governments, is a feature most Western democratic societies where the presentation of policies and personalities in media saturated age is viewed as a key way to attain and maintain political power. The importance of good presentation is hardly a radical new idea in politics but the increasing reliance on buying in' expertise in this vital area has been controversial, to say the least.