Spin Doctors in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany: Metacommunication about Media Manipulation

Abstract

This study develops a new concept in political communication theory called metacommunication. It argues that metacommunication (1) describes a new, third stage in election coverage after issue and strategy coverage; (2) reflects the mass media's new role as a political institution in the third age of political communication; and (3) can be seen as the news media's response to a new, third force in news making: professional political PR. Metacommunication is defined as the news media's self-referential reflections on the nature of the interplay between political public relations and political journalism. While metacoverage can take two forms, self-referential news and process news, the present study puts the main emphasis on the latter. It argues that the coverage of campaign strategists and spin doctors can be seen as a prime example of metadiscursive process news. A cross-country content analysis of “spin doctors in the press” reveals different profiles of metacoverage in the United States, Great Britain...