Steven Barnett – författare

Politics today is inextricably bound to the media, indeed it is now a routine assumption that the media can determine election outcomes. Consequently, over the last 20 years, the conduct of politics has become increasingly driven by what might "play well" on televison or in the press. Not just election campaigning, but other major political platforms including by-elections, budgets, party conferences and set piece speeches have become dominated by media considerations. This is a book about how that relationship works in practice. What sort of deals are done between politicians and journalists? What tactics do politicians use to try and manipulate the media? What are journalists' techniques of resistance? What determines how a campaign is put together? Have policy issues and the national good really been surrendered to image-making and sound-bite tactics? This book examines the modern process of political communication through the eyes of the many different actors who are now involved.Through their own experience, and through personal interviews conducted with many of the key media and political figures, the authors construct a vivid picture of how political communication is managed today and the direction in which it is going.

Politics today is inextricably bound to the media, indeed it is now a routine assumption that the media can determine election outcomes. Consequently, over the last 20 years, the conduct of politics has become increasingly driven by what might "play well" on televison or in the press. Not just election campaigning, but other major political platforms including by-elections, budgets, party conferences and set piece speeches have become dominated by media considerations. This is a book about how that relationship works in practice. What sort of deals are done between politicians and journalists? What tactics do politicians use to try and manipulate the media? What are journalists' techniques of resistance? What determines how a campaign is put together? Have policy issues and the national good really been surrendered to image-making and sound-bite tactics? This book examines the modern process of political communication through the eyes of the many different actors who are now involved.Through their own experience, and through personal interviews conducted with many of the key media and political figures, the authors construct a vivid picture of how political communication is managed today and the direction in which it is going.

Media companies are in the midst of fundamental transformation. The industrial pragmatism needed to survive in 21st century business models, however, collides with the need for diversity of voice in a healthy democracy. Such tensions raise crucial questions about the nature and significance of different ownership regimes for journalism. It's important that we understand the trajectory of current policy thinking and explore alternative and more creative policy initiatives which might promote diversity without prejudicing business interests. Media Ownership, Journalism and Diversity analyzes these issues within the UK using evidence gathered from personal interviews with senior policy makers and through analysis of evidence to a 2008 House of Lords select inquiry committee on news and media ownership, for which the author was specialist advisor. The material is set within a broader international context, and up through the period of the News Corp hacking crisis.

This book traces the history of television journalism in Britain from its austere roots in the BBC's post-war monopoly to the present-day plethora of 24 hour channels and celebrity presenters. It asks why a medium whose thirst for pictures, personalities and drama makes it, some believe, intrinsically unsuitable for serious journalism should remain in the internet age the most influential purveyor of news.Barnett compares the two very different trajectories of television journalism in Britain and the US, arguing that from the outset a rigorous statutory and regulatory framework rooted in a belief about the democratic value of the medium created and sustained a culture of serious, responsible, accurate and interrogative journalism in British television. The book's overarching thesis is that, despite a very different set of historical, regulatory and institutional practices, there is a very real danger that Britain is now heading down the same road as America.

This book traces the history of television journalism in Britain from its austere roots in the BBC''s post-war monopoly to the present-day plethora of 24 hour channels and celebrity presenters. It asks why a medium whose thirst for pictures, personalities and drama makes it, some believe, intrinsically unsuitable for serious journalism should remain in the internet age the most influential purveyor of news.Barnett compares the two very different trajectories of television journalism in Britain and the US, arguing that from the outset a rigorous statutory and regulatory framework rooted in a belief about the democratic value of the medium created and sustained a culture of serious, responsible, accurate and interrogative journalism in British television. The book''s overarching thesis is that, despite a very different set of historical, regulatory and institutional practices, there is a very real danger that Britain is now heading down the same road as America.