Cost overruns, delays and nuisance, but technical masterpieces: How to manage the news in large infrastructure projects?

The ability to manage the news reporting is an important aspect of governing. News reporting is an important source of information for citizens, as well as a tool to seek legitimacy for policies and gain a positive public image for politicians. In this study we will examine which activities of communication professionals lead to news reporting with a positive tone and the framing they aim for, regarding large infrastructure projects in the Netherlands. In ten large infrastructure projects we interview one communication professional and two journalists about the news reporting on the project and the news management activities. We expect two kinds of activities to contribute to successful news management. Firstly, message-related activities, which concern the framing of communication and messages. Secondly, actor-related activities, concerning the building and maintaining of relationships with journalists. The media logic influences the relation between the news management activities and the tone and framing in media reporting. On the one hand, time pressures on journalists might cause that journalists often use PR material stemming from the communication professionals. However, as media strive for entertainment values in the news, media might focus repeatedly on negative, dramatic and personal or emotional aspects of the projects. This would make it harder for communication professionals to manage the news to be positive and contain the message they want to spread.