The main argument presented in this paper is that media releases related to policy developments have become a new kind of policy instrument. Media releases are utilised as a way to impact on policy processes, as a form of intervention in fields of journalism and as a strategy of educational governance. Examples of the strategic use of media releases may be illustrated by the OECD, whose timing and control of media releases detailing national scores on indicators related to the knowledge based economy and school tests leads to subsequent use in media debates around education and higher education policy. The paper presents a conceptualisation of media releases as policy instruments from the perspective of policy sociology, drawing on the theory of fields outlined by Bourdieu, but here extended to include the relationships and cross-field effects of interactions between national policy fields and global policy fields (Rawolle & Lingard, 2008). The research from which the argument of this paper is drawn involved a policy analysis of the interactions between policy makers and journalists over the course of a review of Australia’s science capability, which resulted in Australia’s adoption of a knowledge economy policy (Lingard & Rawolle, 2004; Rawolle, 2005, 2007).