Abstract:
​We are all familiar with the activities of political spin doctors, yet much of our knowledge is filtered through reports by journalists whose image of them is often not flattering. In this paper I use interviews with 28 media advisers to Labor and Coalition governments to try to assess the influence of spin doctors on the news. Among other issues I will discuss the co-operation (as well as conflict) between media advisers and journalists and the way in which news is a result of negotiated process. Finally I will examine Tiffen’s notion of spin as a two edged sword which sometimes produces the opposite result to that intended.

Bio:
Dr David McKnight is an associate professor at the University of New South Wales, in Sydney, Australia.  He is the author of a number of books on the media, politics and history. They include his latest book, Big Coal, (co-authored)  and Rupert Murdoch: an investigation of political power, as well as  Beyond Right and Left: New Politics and the Culture War which discusses renewal of the progressive political vision.   His current research areas cover political spin as well as  climate change and politics. He was formerly a journalist on the Sydney Morning Herald and on ABC TV’s Four Corners as well as the weekly Tribune

About Research Seminar and Workshop Series

 


School of Communication and Arts Research Seminar Series

The research seminar and workshop series occur each semester, each with a different topic and guest speaker from UQ or otherwise.

Friday, 16 August
12-1pm

Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the
SCA Writer's Studio
(Level 6, Michie)

Archives: A Knowledge Café on Ways of Knowing, Seeing, Being, and Accessing

A conversation hosted by Kate Newey, Bernadette Cochrane, Madelyn Coupe, and Hannah Mason

Friday, 23 August
12-1pm

Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at 09-738

Dispatches from Trump-World: Preppers, Climate Disasters and a Front Row Seat the 2024 Republican National Convention

Dr Tom Doig

Friday, 30August
12-1pm

Indigenising the Curriculum Pedagogy JamDr Amelia Barikin and Prof. Anna Johnston

Friday, 13 September
12-1pm

Assessment Security Pedagogy JamDr Amelia Barikin and Dr Maureen Engel

Friday, 20 September
12-1pm

Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the
SCA Writer's Studio
(Level 6, Michie)

Upside Down: Adaptation and Digital Affordances in Stranger Things

Dr Bernadette Cochrane

Friday, 11 October
12-1pm

Hybrid: Online via Zoom and in person at the
SCA Writer's Studio
(Level 6, Michie)

Linking research, teaching and engagement – the PEATLI project

A.Prof Elske van de Fliert

 

Venue

Room: 
Room 601, Michie Building (#9)