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Spinning on a cleaner cycle: how media management became 'respectable' under the UK's coalition government

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 12:42 authored by Ivor GaberIvor Gaber, Sam McCrory
The issue of media management or ‘spin’ came to dominate Tony Blair’s time in office; so much so that even his own Press Secretary, Alastair Campbell, came to concede that they had over-used it. When David Cameron came to power, although he has acknowledged that he learnt many political lessons from Tony Blair, he was keen to ensure that his Government did not make the same mistakes in terms of the over-use of spin. In this article, based on interviews with key players, a comparison is made between the way the two prime ministers, and in particular their press secretaries, managed their media relations in their first years in office. This article, written by two political journalists who witnessed the first years of Blair and Cameron at first hand, characterises the Blair media regime as practising ‘spin heavy’ and the Cameron regime, under Andy Coulson, as practising ‘spin lite’. It concludes, that both in terms of relations with the media, and how that relationship played out vis a vis coverage, ‘spin lite’ was a more successful formulation.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Journal of Applied Journalism and Media Studies

ISSN

2001-0818

Publisher

Intellect

Issue

2

Volume

4

Page range

205 -222

Department affiliated with

  • Media and Film Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2018-04-04

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2018-04-04

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-03-30

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