Strategic communication: making sense of issues management

Strategic communication deals with how an organisation functions as a social actor to advance its mission (Hallahan et al. 2007). Issues management is about how organisations (governments) identify, analyse and deal with issues that are important to them — not just in a party political sense. This paper will explore the links between strategic communication and issues management to theorise that the principles of strategic communication in business apply equally to politics and government. The paper argues that the change agendas of politics are analogous to structural change in corporations. The paper uses an exploratory analysis of issues raised by citizens in the Federal Government’s series of community cabinets since 2008 to argue that there should be greater emphasis on consultation if politicians are to accurately gauge the mood of the electorate.