Medierna ökar pressen. De politiska staberna om medialiseringen och Regeringskansliets vardag.

Abstract

Media and the Swedish Government Office. The Ministerial Staff about the impact of Medialization. This article examines the relationship between media and the partisan ministerial staff of the Government Office. The main objective of the article is to make a contribution to the knowledge about and comprehension of how medialization has affected the work of the partisan ministerial staff.

The article is empirically based on four focus groups, with respectively ministers, secretaries of state, political advisors and press secretaries working under the third Persson government (2002-2006). The article demonstrates that media management is an area that The Government Office was not originally adapted for. Therefore media and communication do not enter into the existing routines and formal decision-making processes of the organization. As a result, media challenge both the process behind the government’s collective decision-making and the up-holding of the impression that the government decides collectively. Thus, there is a need for complementary routines for the contacts between the partisan staff and the civil servants.