Media Management in a Small Polity: Political Elites' Synchronized Calls to Regional Talk Radio and Attempted Manipulation of Public Opinion Polls
Little is known about how elected representatives attempt to manipulate public opinion and news media through their participation on regional open line radio or media straw polls. This article examines the systematic attempts by political actors to engage these media in the small polity of Newfoundl...
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ftanucanberra:oai:openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au:1885/26195 2024-01-14T10:08:46+01:00 Media Management in a Small Polity: Political Elites' Synchronized Calls to Regional Talk Radio and Attempted Manipulation of Public Opinion Polls Kerby, Matthew Marland, Alex http://hdl.handle.net/1885/26195 https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2014.947449 https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/26195/5/u3974019xPUB43_RSD_1.pdf.jpg https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/26195/7/01_Kerby_Media_Management_in_a_Small_2015.pdf.jpg unknown Taylor & Francis Group 1058-4609 http://hdl.handle.net/1885/26195 doi:10.1080/10584609.2014.947449 https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/26195/5/u3974019xPUB43_RSD_1.pdf.jpg https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/26195/7/01_Kerby_Media_Management_in_a_Small_2015.pdf.jpg Political Communication Journal article ftanucanberra https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2014.947449 2023-12-15T09:35:08Z Little is known about how elected representatives attempt to manipulate public opinion and news media through their participation on regional open line radio or media straw polls. This article examines the systematic attempts by political actors to engage these media in the small polity of Newfoundland, Canada, where politics is characterized by the hyper-local nature of 590-VOCM radio programming. Our mixed-method study draws from talk radio call-in logs, online straw poll vote results, observation of the production of open line programming, and insights from local media personnel. We draw attention to two clandestine media management techniques. First, we analyze call-ins by elected legislators to talk radio that were timed to coincide with the known field dates of a public opinion polling company. Second, we report that handheld communication devices were used by senior members of the governing party to mobilize legislators and party personnel to repeatedly vote on straw polls on regional media Web sites. Our findings show that there is a substantial and statistically significant increase in the probability that legislators will call talk radio when pollsters are in the field. Furthermore, we document and explore the manner in which political elites mobilize to engage online media straw polls, and discover that straw poll questions which address political topics attract a disproportionately higher number of “votes” than nonpolitical questions. This micro-level study offers perspective for interpreting macro-level knowledge about political talk radio, horse race/game and strategic media frames, and about political elites’ mobilization and media management tactics. Article in Journal/Newspaper Newfoundland Australian National University: ANU Digital Collections Canada Political Communication 32 3 356 376 |
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Open Polar |
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Australian National University: ANU Digital Collections |
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ftanucanberra |
language |
unknown |
description |
Little is known about how elected representatives attempt to manipulate public opinion and news media through their participation on regional open line radio or media straw polls. This article examines the systematic attempts by political actors to engage these media in the small polity of Newfoundland, Canada, where politics is characterized by the hyper-local nature of 590-VOCM radio programming. Our mixed-method study draws from talk radio call-in logs, online straw poll vote results, observation of the production of open line programming, and insights from local media personnel. We draw attention to two clandestine media management techniques. First, we analyze call-ins by elected legislators to talk radio that were timed to coincide with the known field dates of a public opinion polling company. Second, we report that handheld communication devices were used by senior members of the governing party to mobilize legislators and party personnel to repeatedly vote on straw polls on regional media Web sites. Our findings show that there is a substantial and statistically significant increase in the probability that legislators will call talk radio when pollsters are in the field. Furthermore, we document and explore the manner in which political elites mobilize to engage online media straw polls, and discover that straw poll questions which address political topics attract a disproportionately higher number of “votes” than nonpolitical questions. This micro-level study offers perspective for interpreting macro-level knowledge about political talk radio, horse race/game and strategic media frames, and about political elites’ mobilization and media management tactics. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kerby, Matthew Marland, Alex |
spellingShingle |
Kerby, Matthew Marland, Alex Media Management in a Small Polity: Political Elites' Synchronized Calls to Regional Talk Radio and Attempted Manipulation of Public Opinion Polls |
author_facet |
Kerby, Matthew Marland, Alex |
author_sort |
Kerby, Matthew |
title |
Media Management in a Small Polity: Political Elites' Synchronized Calls to Regional Talk Radio and Attempted Manipulation of Public Opinion Polls |
title_short |
Media Management in a Small Polity: Political Elites' Synchronized Calls to Regional Talk Radio and Attempted Manipulation of Public Opinion Polls |
title_full |
Media Management in a Small Polity: Political Elites' Synchronized Calls to Regional Talk Radio and Attempted Manipulation of Public Opinion Polls |
title_fullStr |
Media Management in a Small Polity: Political Elites' Synchronized Calls to Regional Talk Radio and Attempted Manipulation of Public Opinion Polls |
title_full_unstemmed |
Media Management in a Small Polity: Political Elites' Synchronized Calls to Regional Talk Radio and Attempted Manipulation of Public Opinion Polls |
title_sort |
media management in a small polity: political elites' synchronized calls to regional talk radio and attempted manipulation of public opinion polls |
publisher |
Taylor & Francis Group |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1885/26195 https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2014.947449 https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/26195/5/u3974019xPUB43_RSD_1.pdf.jpg https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/26195/7/01_Kerby_Media_Management_in_a_Small_2015.pdf.jpg |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
Newfoundland |
genre_facet |
Newfoundland |
op_source |
Political Communication |
op_relation |
1058-4609 http://hdl.handle.net/1885/26195 doi:10.1080/10584609.2014.947449 https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/26195/5/u3974019xPUB43_RSD_1.pdf.jpg https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/26195/7/01_Kerby_Media_Management_in_a_Small_2015.pdf.jpg |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2014.947449 |
container_title |
Political Communication |
container_volume |
32 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
356 |
op_container_end_page |
376 |
_version_ |
1788063175266009088 |