. 2014 Nov 7;22(2):125–134. doi: 10.3109/09687637.2014.977228

Table 3.

Quotations illustrating the ways policy actors used the mass media to further their policy interests.

Examples of strategic use of the mass media
Civil Servant: We were really, really active, so any time any new research was published we were putting press lines out. We had a guy in the press office because it was just like, let's turn the volume up on this. And, we were pretty much every week or every couple of weeks, I had like a list of what reports are coming out, planning to get a story out off the back of those things or if the minister was doing a visit that was relevant or, you know? So, it was quite planned in that sense and working quite closely with key partners to ensure that there was a sort of degree of consistency about the messages that we were putting out.
Advocate: In terms of public opinion, if you look at the tracking of public opinion in terms of support for minimum pricing in Scotland – one of the agencies that was working, ad agencies that was working for the [Scottish] Government did some tracking – then basically there was a point in Scotland where the alcohol industry had three public affairs consultancies working for them, and the brief that the consultancies had was to get media stories in the press in order to remove minimum pricing from the Alcohol (etc) Act 2010. So, there was a period in the summer [where] there was about three anti-minimum unit pricing stories in the media every week, which clearly, they [alcohol-related industries] had three public affairs agencies working for them, so they were doing what they were paid to do. And, if you looked at public opinion, it almost tracked exactly that media coverage. So when you had lots of anti-minimum pricing stuff, public opinion went down, when you had, when, you know, Health Scotland, ourselves or others [public health organisations] were having a profile in the press for stuff, public opinion went up. So, it's a factor, and you have to, as public health advocates, you have to maximise your use of it [the mass media] to the benefit of the public interest.

Examples of strategic use of the mass media

Civil Servant: We were really, really active, so any time any new research was published we were putting press lines out. We had a guy in the press office because it was just like, let's turn the volume up on this. And, we were pretty much every week or every couple of weeks, I had like a list of what reports are coming out, planning to get a story out off the back of those things or if the minister was doing a visit that was relevant or, you know? So, it was quite planned in that sense and working quite closely with key partners to ensure that there was a sort of degree of consistency about the messages that we were putting out.

Advocate: In terms of public opinion, if you look at the tracking of public opinion in terms of support for minimum pricing in Scotland – one of the agencies that was working, ad agencies that was working for the [Scottish] Government did some tracking – then basically there was a point in Scotland where the alcohol industry had three public affairs consultancies working for them, and the brief that the consultancies had was to get media stories in the press in order to remove minimum pricing from the Alcohol (etc) Act 2010. So, there was a period in the summer [where] there was about three anti-minimum unit pricing stories in the media every week, which clearly, they [alcohol-related industries] had three public affairs agencies working for them, so they were doing what they were paid to do. And, if you looked at public opinion, it almost tracked exactly that media coverage. So when you had lots of anti-minimum pricing stuff, public opinion went down, when you had, when, you know, Health Scotland, ourselves or others [public health organisations] were having a profile in the press for stuff, public opinion went up. So, it's a factor, and you have to, as public health advocates, you have to maximise your use of it [the mass media] to the benefit of the public interest.