Media releases as policy and political instruments: mechanisms of governance within and between global and national policy fields (symposium 1436)

Author(s):

Shaun Rawolle

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education

Format:

Symposium Paper

Session Information

23 SES 01 B, “Without Data You Are Just Another Person With an Opinion”: Explorations of the Use of Information in Educational Policy

Symposium

Time:

2009-09-28

09:15-10:45

Room:

HG, HS 7

Chair:

Maarten Simons

Discussant:

Eric Mangez

Contribution

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).

Method

Expected Outcomes

References

Lingard, B. & Rawolle, S. (2004). Mediatizing educational policy: the journalistic field, science policy and cross field effects. Journal of Education Policy, 10, 361—380. Rawolle, S. (2005). Cross-field effects and temporary social fields: A case study of the mediatization of recent Australian knowledge economy policies. Journal of Education Policy, 20, 705—724. Rawolle, S. (2007). When the knowledge economy became The Chance to Change: mediatization, cross-field effects and temporary social fields. Unpublished PhD thesis, St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland. Rawolle, S. & Lingard , B. (2008) The sociology of Pierre Bourdieu and researching education policy. Journal of Education Policy.

Author Information

Shaun Rawolle

Charles Sturt University

School of Education

WAGGA WAGGA

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