The Complex Role of Media on Policy U-Turns

This paper aims to develop a better understanding of how media influence the policy-making process in the contemporary communication environment, where hybrid media logics, and increasingly hybrid advocacy organisations (Chadwick 2013), play a crucial role. There is a long tradition of studies focusing on the influence of news media coverage, especially in the political agenda-setting process (see overview in Walgrave & Van Aelst 2006 and Van Aelst & Walgrave 2016). There is also a strong literature about how interest groups and advocacy organisations use news media, and communication more generally, to try to achieve their aims, including framing and re-framing issues (see overview in de Bruckyer 2017) and influencing policy decisions more broadly. There is also a rapidly developing body of literature about digital advocacy organizations, and the novel ways in which they influence the policy-making process (e.g. Karpf 2012, Chadwick and Dennis 2016). The focus and approaches of these literatures, however, are rarely combined and hence only capture part of the process. Thus, the purpose of the paper is to explore the process in a more holistic manner. It will do so firstly by exploring how key actors in the policy-making process (government, opposition, interest and advocacy groups, including digital organisations such as 38degrees) try to use the media for their aims. The key is not only to develop an understanding of how each actor does this, but also how they interact, both as allies and opponents. Secondly, it will explore the role of both news media and social media in combination, thus enabling us to better explore hybrid media logics. In short, the project will ask: which media are used by different actors, with what purposes, how is this reflected in news media coverage, and what is the impact of these complex interactions on policy-making decisions? The paper will use a case-study approach and will focus specifically on high-profile policy ‘U-turns’ as they provide particularly rich but manageable sites to explore these complex multi-actor dynamics in-depth. The framework could then be applied to other types of effects on policy and to different stages in the policy process. References Chadwick, A. (2013) The Hybrid Media System. Oxford: Oxford University Press Chadwick, A. and J. Dennis (2016) Social Media, Professional Media, and Mobilization in Contemporary Britain: Explaining the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Citizens’ Movement 38 Degrees. Political Studies 65(1) De Bruycker, I. (2017) Framing and advocacy: a research agenda for interest group studies. Journal of European Public Policy, 24(5), 775-787 Karpf, D. (2012) The MoveOn Effect: The Unexpected Transformation of American Political Advocacy. Oxford: Oxford University Press Van Aelst, P. and S. Walgrave (2016) Information and Arena: The Dual Function of the News Media for Political Elites. Journal of Communication, 66(3) Walgrave, S. and P. Van Aelst (2006). The contingency of the mass media’s political agenda-setting power: Towards a preliminary theory. Journal of Communication, 56(1), 88–109.