Government communication in the devolved, power-sharing context of Northern Ireland

Abstract

This research analyses government communication within Northern Ireland. Thecentral focus of the research is the roles and relationships of governmentcommunicators and journalists in the power-sharing post-conflict context of NorthernIreland, and how they can be located within broader debates about governmentcommunication in democratic societies. Research on government communication incomplex institutional systems from a public relations perspective is limited, as isresearch on this topic in Northern Ireland. In-depth elite interviews were carried outwith two kinds of government communicators, civil servant Government InformationOfficers (GIOs) and politically appointed Ministerial Special Advisers (SpAds), aswell as political journalists working in Northern Ireland. This method enabled acomprehensive analysis of the government communication process. As with otherpolitical contexts, power and trust dynamics between these individuals are importantin explicating how information is disseminated from government, and how it ismanaged between government and the media. The principal findings of this researchare that the post-conflict environment, the consociational structure of government,and the antagonistic political culture in Northern Ireland, all impact on the flow ofinformation from these professional groups into the public sphere. As a result,Northern Ireland’s public sphere is characterised not just by the usual contest betweengovernment communicators and journalists over political stories, but also bycompetition across and within departments. Government-media interactions are alsoshaped by the legacy of conflict. These issues impact detrimentally on GIOs' abilitiesto communicate a cohesive and transparent government message to the public. Thisthesis contributes to our knowledge of government communication in contemporarysocieties by demonstrating the importance of relationships between communicationelites in this process. It also illuminates the particular issues which a consociationalsystem and post-conflict context produce for government communication, therebyaddressing the wider democratic implications of government communication for apost-conflict society.

Date of Award	May 2014
Original language	English
Supervisor	Ian Somerville (Supervisor) & John Wilson (Supervisor)