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(This form has the approval of the Librarian) A Stylish Revolution: The fourth Labour Government and information management Fay Ann Burke A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Arts at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. September 1992 11 Acknowledgments Thanks must go to all those who submitted to interviews: Stan Rodger, Michael Cullen, Pete Hodgson, Geoffrey Palmer, John Goulter and also to the unnamed sources in this thesis. I am also indebted to those who took time out to respond to written queries: Mike Moore, the late Sir Robert Muldoon, Alan Spencer from the Audit Office, Carol Rankin on behalf of the Clerk of the House of Representatives, Barry Holt from the Department of Internal Affairs, Tom Scott from the Evening Post and Olenn Wiggs from the Advertising Standards Complaints Board. I must express a special thankyou to Mr George Bryant for his ongoing interest and assistance, which has been invaluable. Thanks are due to the staff at the various libraries around the country who assisted in finding sometimes difficult to access material, and to Dr Brian Roper for his interest and assistance with material. Numerous people have provided assistance in the guise of advice, support and proof reading - Kate, Lynda, Joan, Vivienne, Anton, Jon, Liat, Addrienne, Lee, Cairine, and Peta a big thanks to you all and to anyone I may have missed. Finally and probably most importantly, I am indebted to my supervisor Dr Chris Rudd for his ..patience and his advice on seemingly- . endless drafts of this thesis, to Professor Wood for his enthusiasm and comments, and to my Mum and Dad for believing education is never wasted - however long it may have taken! 111 Abstract This thesis explores the development of the fourth Labour Government's news and publicity management strategies, and the rise of a sophisticated and professional system of information dispersal. Given that Labour embarked upon the most radical programme of reform seen for fifty years in New Zealand, it should be of greater concern that the mainstream media failed to provide a sustained critique and in-depth investigation of the changes which were occuring to the social and economic system. A range of factors contributed to the fourth Labour Government's ability to manage news and publicity - the formal structures of the media itself and the impact of the Government's free market policy on those structures; the establishment of a system of professional handlers of information within the beehive, and the associated techniques of news management and publicity; the instruments for conducting publicity and news management - the press gallery, and taxpayer funded state publicity campaigns; and finally the impact of modern election campaigns where all the techniques of news management come together more visibly than in day-to-day government. The underlying premise of the thesis is that modern democratic governments will inevitably seek to manipulate and propagandise, and the communications revolution coupled with new right ideology has exacerbated that trend, causing something of a revolution in government communications techniques. Table of Contents Acknowledgments ii Abstract iii Introduction 6 CHAPTER 1 Government and the Media in New Zealand 13 Propaganda and Democracy 13 Government and the Early Press 18 Radio-Government and the Origins of Broadcasting 23 The Arrival of Television 28 Muldoon and the Media 1975-1984 30 CHAPTER 2 Media Structures and Labour: Reform, Deregulation and Concentration of Ownership 34 The United Kingdom Experience 36 The Status of the Media in New Zealand 38 The Rhetoric 43 ...And The Reality 47 Restructuring the Business of Broadcasting .49 CHAPTER 3 Feeding the Chooks: 55 Government-Party Policy on Communication 56 Professionalisation of Information Control.. 58 Politicisation of ministerial support staff.. 63 The Politics of Information Dispersal 67 CHAPTER 4 Puhlicity Strategies 72 The Press Gallery and Political Reporting 73 State Publicity Campaigns 82 CHAPTER 5 Elections and the fourth Labour Government 92 The evolution of modern campaign techniques in New Zealand 93 The 1987 and 1990 campaigns 97 Style 99 The effects of deregulation and concentration of ownership 103 Conclusions 107 Appendices 113 Appendix 1 Media Takeovers and Mergers - 1984-87 114 Appendix 2 Correspondence with Advertising Standards Complaints Board 118 Appendix 3 Correspondence with Audit Office 121 References 122 6 Introduction After the election of the National Government in 1990, there was increasing discussion in the mainstream media regarding the relationship between that government and the media. Concerns were voiced regarding the increase in the level of expenditure and allocation of resources by the National Government into improving media management, and also at attempts by National to silence the increasing number of critics of its economic direction. By March 1991, less than six months into their term, the Bolger Government had spent an estimated two million dollars on 'information' campaigns, including advertising the Employment Contracts Bill ($240,000 on information pamphlets), benefit cuts ($895,000 on print and television campaigns, $400,000 on letters to beneficiaries), and Ka Awatea (ten dollars per copy of a report which was not Government policy). Commentators and the Labour opposition were quick to point to the hypocrisy of the National Party, which when in opposition had been quick to condemn similar activities of the fourth Labour Government (Otago Daily Times, 14/03/91, and 16/03/91). Later came the revelations that National was spending $500,000 per year just to monitor the output of the media (Maharey, 1992, p.94), and had spent $2.1 million to write, print and publicise the 1991 budget (Moore, 1992, p.87). Following the Tamaki by-election, Prime Minister Jim Bolger announced that the chief message the Government had received from Tamaki was that Government policies were not being communicated clearly, and in order to fill that gap they were reactivating plans to establish a $440,000 communications unit inside the Prime Minister's Department - thereby avoiding the public criticism that arose from letting publicity contracts to public relations firms (Dominion, 18/02/92). Also raised by the media were concerns at the way the Prime Minister's Department was dealing with media criticism. It seemed in 1992, that the Bolger Government was returning to a more confrontational media relationship. Although there was very little direct evidence, there were concerns about 'threats' to Radio New Zealand's future following some tense interviews between RNZ's Kim Hill and Jim Bolger. Television New Zealand's Richard Harman had been hauled over the coals for 'bad mouthing' the Prime Minister at a Beehive social function. One of the best publicised reactions was between the Prime Minister, his Press Secretary Mike Wall and TV3 heads regarding TV3's Bill Ralston's satire of the Prime Minister on Nightline. At one stage, TV3 heads were asked to withdraw Ralston from the Prime Minister's press conferences (Evening 7 Post, 4/03/92).1 At the same time that these concerns were being voiced media watchers, and the media themselves were becoming increasingly concerned about the effects of deregulation and concentration of media ownership on news reporting.? Fewer journalists and more intense competition had led to less investigative journalism, more sensationalist style reporting and an increasing reliance on press releases from major news sources. It also made journalists more susceptible to pressure from important news sources such as the Government. The area of government-media relations is an extremely complex one, and one which deserves closer scrutiny. While the Bolger Government's relationship with the media increasingly came under the microscope, much of what was happening could be traced back to changes instigated by the fourth Labour Government. 1984 constituted a landmark year in terms of government-media relations. Gone was the direct confrontational style of the Muldoon era; enter a new and user friendly Labour Government.