James Stanyer is Lecturer at the Centre for Mass Communication Research, University of Leicester. He received his doctorate from the London School of Economics and Political Science and has published on British political parties and the mass media.

• Contents: Acknowledgements; Introduction: The News from Blackpool, Bournemouth and Brighton; Creating the Good' Conference; Negotiating Coverage; The Broadcasters by the Seaside; Spinning on the Conference Circuit; Packaging the Leader's Speech; Off Message: the Limits of Agenda Management; Manufacturing Debate; The Formation of Conference News Agendas; Appendix: Research Methods; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

"Detailed case studies provide a welcome documentation of ground-level practice and bring out the complexities of current media-political relations in a way that more generalised polemical pieces often fail to do." -- Parliamentary Affairs."An excellent introduction to journalism and political spin in contemporary British politics." -- Media, Culture & Society."Well researched and highly readable, it will be of great interest to media and political communicaton specialists." -- Party Politics."The focus is on the management of television coverage of annual party conferences, until now a theme not covered in British academic media research." -- The Political Quarterly."Stanyer's book provides fascinating insights into the current organization, conduct and mediation of the modern party political conference in the UK." -- European Journal of Communication.