Power-sharing and political public relations: Government-press relationships in Northern Ireland's developing democratic institutions

Rice, Charis; Somerville, Ian

doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2013.07.014

Cited by 16 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 37 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The noted lack of collective cabinet responsibility among ministers is a particular problem for government communication (Rice and Somerville 2013). As Birrell explains, this stems from mandatory coalition:After the 1998 Agreement, there was no legal requirement or guidance laid down that decision making would operate on a formal basis of collective responsibility .…”

Section: Findings and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Contest and Oppositional Voices in Postconflict Democracy

Rice

Somerville

2016

The International Journal of Press/Politics

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article investigates how political institutions affect government–media relationships. Most studies of media-politics focus on majoritarian parliamentary or presidential systems and on how party systems affect journalism. This tends to neglect important issues that pertain in more constitutionally complex democracies, such as the consociational institutions in postconflict societies. Taking the Northern Irish context as a strategic case study, we analyze data from thirty-three semistructured interviews with the actors responsible for communicating political issues in Northern Ireland: political journalists and the two groups of government communicators, civil service Government Information Officers (GIOs) and Ministerial Special Advisers (SpAds). By examining their roles and relationships in this context, we demonstrate the importance of considering the institutional design of the democratic system itself when attempting to develop a more comprehensive and nuanced theory of media-politics. In Northern Ireland, the absence of an official political opposition in the legislature, together with the mandatory nature of the multiparty coalition, means that the media have come to be perceived by many political and media actors as the opposition. This in turn influences the interpersonal interactions between government and media, the way political actors try to “manage” the media, and the media’s approach to reporting government.

show abstract

Section: Findings and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Contest and Oppositional Voices in Postconflict Democracy

Rice

Somerville

2016

The International Journal of Press/Politics

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…New post-conflict relationships require strategic communication management. This involves many levels of communication such as political and governmental public relations (Rice and Somerville, 2013), government interventions and local communities mobilising interest, aggregating into national, large-scale collective action (Minkoff, 1997). But the discourse of communicative elites, that is, political and media actors, undoubtedly have substantial power to influence this rebuilding.…”

Section: Public Relations Elite Discourse Peace and Conflictmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘What they say peters down’: How non-profit leaders assess the trustworthiness of government – Elite discourse and distrust in post-conflict Northern Ireland

Rice

Taylor

2020

Public Relations Inquiry

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article uses Northern Ireland as a research context to explore how elite discourse (from political and media actors/institutions) influences how Non-Profit Leaders (NPLs) assess the trustworthiness of government. We provide emergent themes which should aid theory development and practice in the area of political public relations by showing: (1) the value NPLs place on ‘soft’ trust qualities in trust assessments of government, namely benevolence; (2) the importance NPLs place on communicative acts which model trust (e.g. dialogue, compromise, mediation); and (3) the destructive role of divisive political elite discourse within a defective political system, amplified via the media, in NPLs’ distrust of government. The study thereby emphasises the crucial and constitutive role trust perceptions play in (in)effective political public relations, arguing that ‘trust’ must be defined by the perceiver and critically unpacked if public relations research is to fully appreciate its function. We propose that the nature of Northern Ireland’s post-conflict divided society, and political discourse in specific, makes certain trust antecedents most desirable to cross-community stakeholders. The findings contribute to further refining the concept of trust in public relations and they may also be instructive for other contexts.

show abstract

“…For example, in what Blumler and Kavanagh () have called the “third age” of political communication, the “mediatization of politics” (Mazzoleni & Schulz, ) means that the presentation of policy and politicians can be driven more by the needs of the media agenda than by a concern for political substance, producing an emphasis on marketing policies and politicians, and monitoring and managing public opinion (Moloney, ). The quality of public debates is correspondingly weaker, because matters of public concern are ignored (Phillis, ; Rice & Somerville, ).…”

Section: Democratic Deliberative Public Relations?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Public Relations in Deliberative Systems

Edwards

2015

J Commun

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article reframes public relations' contribution to democracy in light of the recent turn to deliberative systems in democratic theory. I consider the problematic that public relations poses to normative models of deliberative democracy, and how that problematic has been addressed in public relations theory thus far. I suggest that deliberative systems provides a more robust basis for theorising public relations' role in deliberation and propose an analytical approach for understanding the complex and sometimes contradictory role of public relations in deliberative democracy. The framework provides a starting point for locating public relations' engagement in deliberative systems and evaluating its effects.Keywords: public relations, organizational communication, deliberation, deliberative systems, democracy The Role of Public Relations in Deliberative SystemsThe role of public relations in deliberative democracy has long been a focus of debate. The instrumental approach to public relations poses a problem for understanding it as a positive force in democratic deliberation. Deliberative theorists emphasise the importance of rational, reasonable, open and inclusive debates among citizens to reaching legitimate decisions about how society should be governed (Chambers, 2012;Dryzek, 2000). These requirements distinguish deliberation from being 'mere talk' and from distortion through manipulation or coercion (Parkinson, 2012;Schudson, 1997). They are secured through a PUBLIC RELATIONS IN DELIBERATIVE SYSTEMS 3 number of normative conditions including the need to set aside vested interests, to prioritise rational argument and to include all those affected by the issue under discussion (Dryzek & Niemeyer, 2010;Habermas, 1996;Jacobs, Cook, & Delli Carpini, 2010). Such conditions inevitably lead to critiques of public relations, given that the motivation to use it is usually associated with some form of organizational self-interest (e.g. improving reputation, relationships or sales), and that emotional appeals are widely used in campaigns alongside, or instead of, rational argument. Combined with evidence of poor public relations practice, the profession is easily framed as the cause of various pathologies of deliberation (Bohman, 2000;Stokes, 1998): government communicators may be seen to mislead the public about policy decisions; issues management campaigns may mislead policymakers about public opinion; and media relations practitioners may manipulate the media agenda such that media discourses represent 'pseudo-preferences' of the public rather than real ones. More generally, the profession could be accused of engaging in 'plebiscitary rhetoric ' (Chambers, 2009, p. 328), where the aim is to win the argument and gain power rather than reflexively engage with other actors in order to pursue a legitimate consensus.Attempts to reclaim the place of public relations in democracy emphasise its ability to generate social capital that connects individuals, groups and organizations, its value to activist groups, ...

show abstract

Power-sharing and political public relations: Government-press relationships in Northern Ireland's developing democratic institutions

Cited by 16 publications

References 37 publications

Political Contest and Oppositional Voices in Postconflict Democracy

Political Contest and Oppositional Voices in Postconflict Democracy

‘What they say peters down’: How non-profit leaders assess the trustworthiness of government – Elite discourse and distrust in post-conflict Northern Ireland

The Role of Public Relations in Deliberative Systems

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About