The Mediation of Power

233 Pages·2007·1.54 MB·English

by  Aeron Davis

The Mediation of Power
The Mediation of Power investigates how those in positions of power use and
are influenced by media in their everyday activities. Each chapter examines this
theme through an exploration of some of the key topic areas and debates in the
field. The topics covered are:
(cid:127) theories of media and power
(cid:127) media policy and the economics of information
(cid:127) news production and journalistic practice
(cid:127) public relations and media management
(cid:127) culture and power
(cid:127) political communication and mediated politics
(cid:127) new and alternative media
(cid:127) interest group communication
(cid:127) media audiences and effects.
In addition, the book presents a series of critical dialogues with the traditional
paradigms in the field. These are rethought, supplemented or discarded alto-
gether. The discussions are illustrated with original research material from a
range of communication environments and case study examples. These docu-
ment stock market crashes, e-democracy, the subcultures of the London Stock
Exchange and Westminster Parliament, the strategies of corporate and political
spin doctors, mass media influences on politicians and the Make Poverty History
campaign.
The debates are enlivened by first-hand accounts taken from over 200 high-
profile interviews with politicians, journalists, public officials, spin doctors,
campaigners and captains of industry. Tim Bell, David Blunkett, Iain Duncan
Smith, Simon Heffer, David Hill, Simon Hughes, Trevor Kavanagh, Neil
Kinnock, Peter Riddell, Polly Toynbee, Michael White and Ann Widdecombe
are some of those cited.
Aeron Davis is a Senior Lecturer in Political Communication in the Departm ent
of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths College, London. He has published
in the areas of political communication, media sociology, promotional culture
and financial markets, and is the author of Public Relations Democracy (2002).
Communication and Society
Series Editor: James Curran
Glasnost, Perestroika and the Getting the Message
Soviet Media News, truth and power
Brian McNair The Glasgow Media Group
Pluralism, Politics and the Advertising, the Uneasy
Marketplace Persuasion
The regulation of German Its dubious impact on American
broadcasting society
Vincent Porter and Suzanne Hasselbach Michael Schudson
Potboilers Nation, Culture, Text
Methods, concepts and case studies in Australian cultural and media studies
popular fiction Edited by Graeme Turner
Jerry Palmer
Television Producers
Communication and Citizenship
Jeremy Tunstall
Journalism and the public sphere
Edited by Peter Dahlgren and Colin
What News?
Sparks
The market, politics and the local
press
Seeing and Believing
Bob Franklin and David Murphy
The influence of television
Greg Philo
In Garageland
Rock, youth and modernity
Critical Communication Studies
Johan Fornäs, Ulf Lindberg and Ove
Communication, history and theory in
Sernhede
America
Hanno Hardt
The Crisis of Public
Media Moguls Communication
Jeremy Tunstall and Michael Palmer Jay G. Blumler and Michael Gurevitch
Fields in Vision Glasgow Media Group Reader,
Television sport and cultural Volume 1
transformation News content, language and visuals
Garry Whannel Edited by John Eldridge
Glasgow Media Group Reader, De-Westernizing Media Studies
Volume 2 Edited by James Curran and Myung-Jin
Industry, economy, war and politics Park
Edited by Greg Philo
British Cinema in the Fifties
The Global Jukebox Christine Geraghty
The international music industry
Robert Burnett Ill Effects
The media violence debate, Second
Inside Prime Time edition
Todd Gitlin Edited by Martin Barker and Julian Petley
Media and Power
Talk on Television
James Curran
Audience participation and public
debate
Journalism after September 11
Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt
Edited by Barbie Zelizer and Stuart Allan
Media Effects and Beyond
News and Journalism in the UK
Culture, socialization and lifestyles
Fourth edition
Edited by Karl Erik Rosengren
Brian McNair
We Keep America on Top of the
An Introduction to Political
World
Communication
Television journalism and the public
Third edition
sphere
Brian McNair
Daniel C. Hallin
Remaking Media
A Journalism Reader
The struggle to democratize public
Edited by Michael Bromley and Tom
communication
O’Malley
Robert A. Hackett and William K. Carroll
Tabloid Television Media on the Move
Popular journalism and the ‘other Global flow and contra-flow
news’ Daya Kishan Thussu
John Langer
An Introduction to Political
International Radio Journalism Communication
History, theory and practice Fourth edition
Tim Crook Brian McNair
Media, Ritual and Identity The Mediation of Power
Edited by Tamar Liebes and James A critical introduction
Curran Aeron Davis

The Mediation of Power
A critical introduction
Aeron Davis
First published 2007
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2007 Aeron Davis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Davis, Aeron.
The mediation of power: a critical introduction/Aeron Davis.
p. cm. – (Communication and society)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
[etc.]
1. Mass media–Political aspects. 2. Mass media–Political aspects–Great Britain.
3. Communication in politics. 4. Communication in politics–Great Britain.
5. Communication–Political aspects. 6. Communication–Political aspects–
Great Britain. 7. Press and politics. 8. Press and politics–Great Britain. I. Title.
P95.8.D35 2007
302.23–dc22 2007001862
ISBN 0-203-94582-4 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0–415–40490–8 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–415–40491–6 (pbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–94582–4 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–40490–7 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–40491–4 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–94582–7 (ebk)
For Annie

Contents
List of illustrations xi
Preface and acknowledgements xiii
1 Introduction: critical engagements with mediated power 1
2 Media policy: communication and the economic
inefficiencies of market liberalisation 17
3 Media production: discursive practices, news production
and the mobilisation of bias in public discourse 36
4 Media management and public relations: public media,
inter-elite conflict and power 55
5 Culture, discourse and power: the rediscovery of elite
culture and power in media studies? 74
6 Mediated politics: the mediation of parliamentary politics 96
7 New and alternative media: the Internet and the
parliamentary public sphere 113
8 Interest groups and mediated mobilisation: communication
in the Make Poverty History campaign (by Nick Sireau and
Aeron Davis) 131
9 Media audiences and effects: the question of the rational
audience in the London Stock Exchange 151