Nearly half a century ago Neville Wran, the gravel voiced powerbroking NSW Labor Premier from 1976-86, perfected the art of orchestrating TV press conferences. If a pesky journalist shoved a microphone in his face and asked a difficult question, Wran would just turn away from the offending mike and camera, using his eyes to invite someone else to ask their question. No sound, no visual, no story. Pretty Nifty indeed.

It was a forerunner to Adam Bandt’s classic put down of the attempted ambush by a smug journalist, asking a surprise election campaign media conference question about some statistic or other: “Google it, mate!”

But in these social mediated days there are so many tricky new traps for the unwary. Especially the roaming ‘randoms with phones,’ the hanging mics left on after the staged speeches have finished, and the plague of parasitic ‘influencers,’ trawling the world to share candid camera surprise stories that they hope will attract hordes of new viewers. Click baiters angling for new angles.

Everyone’s a target. And in some ways the over orchestrated political ‘pressers’ deserve to be gatecrashed. Because there’s so much set piece positioning, it’s impossible to believe anyone cares what’s actually happening.

If we track the history of Impression Management, it “refers to the process by which an individual can control or influence another’s impression of them by a series of conscious or unconscious strategies. The theory was coined by US sociologist Erving Goffman in his 1959 book “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life” (thanks to Wikipedia).

“Goffman likened social interactions to a theatrical performance, emphasising the cooperative nature of social exchanges and the desire to avoid embarrassment… (He believed) the self was not a fixed thing that resides within individuals but a social process” (ibid.).

This phenomenon is now blown out of all proportion due to the impact of social media sharing, sexting and texting, which in extreme cases has led young people to suicide.

There’s a difference between being well prepared for a public appearance as a political representative of your community, and staging stunts purely to try to attract attention to yourself.

Sadly, the end result of professional media training for sports people and politicians alike is a total deadening effect of their ‘selfhood’ in their public appearances, replacing all signs of life with scripted zombie lines.

No wonder the orange TACO gets away with calling everything fake news. Because most of it has been predigested like baby food.

We can hope now for a period of relative sanity, as the Albanese Labor Government settles into its second term. Hopefully their public appearances will stay open to some natural human interactions, if their political advancers pre-checking every public venue they visit allow for some spontaneity.

That’s what viewers respond to. The sense of something genuinely human being experienced and expressed, along with the policies that aim to improve our quality of life. It’s why Bob Brown has always been a great media presence - he’s a genuine straight shooter, like it or lump it (just ask ‘W’ Bush!). Same with the ACTU’s Sally McManus, like Greg Combet before her. And Warren Hogan and Darren Lester from the LNP. What you see is what you get.

And blessed Bob Katter, the crocodile-obsessed, ten gallon-hatted, North Queensland madcap media miracle. Even Barnanaby Joyce, and big Dan Repacholi. They’re grounded in enough obviously authentic selfhood that people listen, even when some of the antics and comments go way off script.

The last addition to this potpourri of impression management delights is the Meme. As described by “the popular meme creator Saint Hoax, who has three million Instagram followers, a meme is defined as a piece of media that is repurposed to deliver a cultural, social or political expression, mainly through humour. ‘It has the ability to capture insight in a way that is in complete alignment with the zeitgeist,’ Saint Hoax said.” (thanks to NY Times).

Let’s hope the goal in this new term of parliament will be to source some new positive cultural viruses, that can lead to an uplift in the national mood. If not a total revival of our fair go tradition, wry humour and compassion for those less fortunate, and a reduction in the seeding of prejudice and hate.

We have all got our favourite memes, and the orange TACO has been super generous in helping to create many modern classics. But Australia won’t be left out of this field, and one of our greatest contributors is a recent former Prime Minister, famous for fire hose references, Hawaiian shirts, taking coal into parliament, and tackling little boys on the soccer pitch.

Meme me up Scotty!

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.