seven - Managing commercialised media attention in complex governance networks: positive and negative effects on network performance

Summary

Introduction: public managers coping with commercialised media

Society and governance processes have become very complex, and many authors argue that most service delivery and public decision-making takes place within networks of interdependent actors, characterised by complex decision and interaction processes and requiring collaborative leadership (Mandell, 2001; Koppenjan and Klijn, 2004; Ansell and Gash, 2008). This literature emphasises that, to be successful in these networks, political leaders and administrators must engage in interactions with various stakeholders to be effective and actively manage their network (Koppenjan and Klijn, 2004; Huxham and Vangen, 2005).

The growing literature on mediatisation and media attention on political and administrative events gives a different impression, however. Although some of the literature emphasises the positive functions of the media as a democratic forum where information is provided, where citizens can judge political events and media act as critical watchdog of politics (see Schudson, 1998; Graber, 2004), another branch of the literature adopts a more critical stance. This literature (Cook, 2005; Bennett, 2009) emphasises that it is very hard to avoid media attention and that media attention follows its own (media) logic with an emphasis on drama, storytelling, and focusing on conflict and personal stories in the news.

Although there is a strong tradition of research on agenda forming that also looks at media attention on these processes (Cobb and Elder, 1983; Baumgartner and Jones, 2009), the subject of the attention paid by the media to complex governance processes has so far largely been ignored. The governance literature has predominantly focused on the complexity of decision-making processes and the way that they are managed. Thus, from the perspective of this literature, an examination of how media attention affects that decision process, and the relation of media attention and network management, seems both very interesting and a new research area for the governance literature.

The literature on mediatisation has been focusing more on political leaders and on (national) issues that are salient and that catch the attention of many media. From that perspective, more attention on (other) governance processes might generate interesting new findings and bring new insights to the literature on media attention. Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to connect the media and the governance literature to each other and extend the research questions of both branches of literature.