02470 a2200397 4500 1351697307 20250317111620.0 250312042019GB 17 eng 9781351697309 Taylor & Francis GBP 38.99 BB 01 eng JBCT thema KJSP thema KNTP2 thema JPR thema QDTS thema JPHV thema 1DDU bisac JFD bic KJSP bic KNTJ bic JPR bic HPS bic JPHV bic 1DBK bisac SOC052000 bisac 072 bisac Carmel O'Toole Local Democracy, Journalism and Public Relations The changing dynamics in local media and public sector communications 1 Oxford Routledge 20190501 220 p This is a critical examination of the impact of sustained large-scale austerity cuts on local government communications in the UK. Budget constraints have left public sector media teams without the resources for robust citizen-facing communications. The "nose for news" has been downgraded and local journalists, once the champions of public interest coverage, are a force much diminished. The book asks, what is lost to local democracy as a result? And what does it mean when no one is holding the country’s public spenders to account? The authors present extensive interviews with communications professionals working across different council authorities. These offer important insights into the challenges currently being faced by communicators within local public services. The book also includes in-depth case studies on the Grenfell Tower disaster, the Rotherham child-grooming scandal and the Sheffield tree-felling controversy. These events all raise serious questions about the scrutiny and accountability of local authorities and the important role the media can and does play. Local Democracy, Journalism and Public Relations provides new empirical data on, and the real-world views of, working communications teams in local government today. For students and researchers interested in local journalism and public relations, the book illuminates the current relationship between these professions, local democracy and political accountability. Adrian Roxan A01 5691 5691