Political Studies (1999), XLVII, 718±739 1`P olitical management' is the most common descriptive label in the US trade literature of political consultants. See R. Faucheux, (ed.), The Road to Victory: the Complete Guide to Winning in Politics (Washington DC, Campaigns and Elections, 1995).
Health is a very prominent news category. However, we know little about the production processes of journalists leading to the health stories we encounter on a daily basis. Such knowledge is crucial for ensuring a vibrant public sphere for health. This article draws on interviews with eight health journalists in New Zealand to document what they consider to constitute a health story, their professional norms and practices, their perceptions of audiences, and the need for increased civic deliberations regarding health. Journalists privilege biomedical stories involving lifestyle and individual responsibility, and have limited frames for presenting stories that involve socio-political concerns. Stories are strongly shaped by journalists' considerations of their target audience, the sources they draw on, their professional norms, and institutional practices. This results in the omission of stories that have relevance for minority and disadvantaged groups and limits the nature of the stories told to ones that reflect the views of the majority. However, journalists are also reflective about these issues and receptive to ways to overcome them. This raises possibilities for health researchers to engage with journalists in order to repoliticise health and promote a more civic-oriented form of health journalism.
It has become commonplace to speak of political parties and brands. This article looks at the rise of the brand and explains how branding has become the cutting edge of commercial marketing. It examines how the brand concept and research techniques are used in politics and focuses in particular on the rebranding of Tony Blair in the run up to the 2005 U.K. general election. More broadly, it argues that branding is the new form of political marketing. If market research, spin, and advertising were the key signifiers of marketed parties and candidates in the 1980s and 1990s, “branding” is the hallmark now. It will argue that the brand concept has analytical value. It is not simply a convenient and fashionable term for image. Furthermore, it is a demonstration that we are moving from a mass media model to a consumer model of political communication.
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