Description
Book SynopsisLabour sought to develop policies regulating newspaper ownership and the role of journalists. It endeavoured to both correct what it perceived as press bias against the Labour Party and to address the broader issues of political and cultural diversity. Labour's & the Press, 1972-2005 provides a lucid analysis of how Labour's policies on the press sit within the context of the party's overall development -- from Harold Wilson, through the party's flirtation with Robert Maxwell, to the robust approach of Tony Blair. It offers a fresh insight into New Labour's concern with press management and political communications. The author demonstrates how tensions of the past shed new light on Labour Party practices of the present.
Trade Review"...presents a clear-sighted survey of the shift from the Wilson period to now, and offers a new look at New Labours close attention to press management and managed political communications. It deserves to be widely read." -- European Journal of Communication, 22/4, 2007.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Labour's Problems with the Press; The People and the Press: Party Debates up to 1974; The Party, the Government, the Commission and its Minority: Labour from 1974 to 1979; Flow and Ebb: Labour from 1979 to 1983; Changes and Political Communications: Labour in the 1980s; Policy Reviewed: Neil Kinnock and John Smith; Living with the Enemy: Press Policy Under Tony Blair; Epilogue and Concluding Remarks: How Did We Get Here?; Index.
