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The Relationship between Local Government and the News Media

Throughout Australia local government has some 7700 elected representatives, an annual expenditure of $15 billion, employs more than 147 000 people and provides more than ninety different services functions. For the local news media, these local authorities are dearly the main source for much of the information that the public needs to know about local services, and for local authorities the media is one of the most useful means by which to communicate with local residents. The interaction between local government and the news media is therefore an important one and is the focus of this study which is based on a nationwide survey of 135 local government authorities and 72 newspapers. The study examines the use local authorities make of public relations and other officers to convey information and the level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction by local authorities with the coverage of their activities by the news media. It also looks at restrictions on the flow of information from local government to the news media and at ways of improving the local government! news media relationship.