Prime Ministers and the Media

Colin Seymour-Ure has been researching and writing about political communication and mass media since the 1960s. He is Emeritus Professor of Government and former Dean of Social Sciences at the University of Kent, Canterbury. His publications include The British Press and Broadcasting since 1945 (Blackwell Publishing, second edition 1996) and a biography of the cartoonist David Low (1985). He is a Council member of the Hansard Society, and he used to chair the Independent Television Commission’s committee responsible for advising on advertising rules.

• List of Figures. List of Maps.List of Tables.Preface.Introduction: Prime Minister, Communication, Power, Control.1. Public Communication and the Prime Minister’s Tasks.2. Public Communication as a Prime Ministerial Resource.3. Public Communication: Turning Authority into Power.4. The Capital City as News Environment.5. Harlots Revisited: Media Barons, Politics and Prime Ministers.6. The Rise of the Downing Street Press Secretary.7. The Downing Street Press Secretary: Getting into a Spin?.8. Prime Ministers and Press Conferences.9. Grapevine Politics: Political Rumours.10. Drawing Blood? Prime Ministers and Political Cartoons.Index.

"This is a fascinating, authoritative and eminently readable history of the changing relationship between prime ministers and the media. As one of the country’s leading historians of politics and the press, Colin Seymour-Ure offers some highly original insights in a book which should be required reading for anyone with an interest in politics or political communication." Steven Barnett, University of Westminster "Nevertheless, the book is clearly written enough to make it a good eaching tool and it contains enough insights (and historical nuggets) to satisfy an academic audience too." Political Studies Review