Journal website:

One distinctive feature of the increasing mediatisation of politics in general and election campaigns in particular is the growth of the media’s self-referential reflections on the interplay between politics and media. This meta-coverage has become a familiar media ritual that is not only evident in traditional ‘hard news ’ media, but has also become an essential part of comedy and lifestyle programs. While some scholars argue that these self-referential revelations about how political communication and audiences are being conceptualised serves the public interest, others suggest that meta-coverage leads to increased cynicism and disengagement among citizens. In this context, the highly successful Australian television program Gruen Nation is a particularly instructive example. On the program, advertisers and campaign strategists engaged in meta-coverage of the 2010 Australian Federal Election campaign. This article examines how the communication experts decoded political communication, how they performed their professional ideology and to what extent their meta-coverage contributed to a critical analysis of the interplay between media and the democratic process