Influence of the Media

• What does the term ‘broadcast media’ cover?

  All television stations such as the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and sky and also radio networks
• All broadcasters in the UK are bound by law to remain neutral and to offer balanced reporting of election and referendum campaigns.
• The Sun had ran a relentless campaign against Labour (and especially Kinnock) in 1992 despite opinion polls suggesting a comfortable Labour victory.
• What did the Sun proclaim after the Conservative victory in 1992?

  ’It‘s the Sun Wot Won It’
• Whether or not it was indeed the press that had changed voters’ minds in 1992, however, is open to contention.
• Unlike television and radio, there is no press regulation in terms of political bias and UK newspapers are highly politicised
• Today, more of the newspapers support the Conservative Party than other parties, and the two largest circulation tabloids, the Sun and the Daily Mail, both support the Conservatives, reflecting the attitudes of the owners of those papers.
• While large sections of the public do believe that the press influences them, research suggests it does not. Instead the newspapers tend to reflect the typical political views of their readers, rather than leading them. This is likely to be something of a two- way process as the papers may also reinforce existing political attitudes, but there is no strong evidence that they can change them.
• The greatest evidence against the importance of the press is that in 2017 Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party received 40 per cent of the national vote despite only having one paper (the Mirror) supporting it.
• The Sun’s owner, Rupert Murdoch admitted that newspapers do not swing votes, they merely reflect readers’ opinions
• Perhaps the greatest evidence against the importance of the press is that in 2017 Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party received 40 per cent of the national vote despite only having one paper (the Mirror) supporting it.
• Why is social media especially useful for small parties?

  For parties such as the Greens and UKIP (more recently Reform UK), they are able to compete in conventional campaigning without the resources in terms of membership and national organisation.
• The tabloid press has always been partisan, but it has become more so with the rise of social media platforms.
• The tabloid press has become more focused on scandal and mocking politicians it opposes, rather than providing information and informed debate.
• The media, in the way it tends to prioritise negative political stories over positive ones, has contributed to a national attitude of cynicism towards politics and politicians.
• By focusing ever more on leaders and personalities in politics, the media has turned politicians into celebrities instead of focusing on their abilities and public service.
• The media can act as a check on representatives and democratic institutions by scrutinising their work through investigations.

  For example the Daily Telegraph investigation of the MPs expenses scandal in 2008 helped to hold many MPs to account, while the media reporting of the Windrush scandal in 2018 saw the resignation of the then Home Secretary and a public investigation into the matter.
• What are Public Opinion Polls?

  Polls carried out by research organisations using a sample of typical voters. They are mainly used to establish voting intentions, but can also be used to gauge leaders’ popularity and the importance of specific issues in voters’ minds.
• The polls on the whole were significantly wrong in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, the 2015 and 2017 general elections and the 2016 EU referendum, and though right, underplayed the Conservative victory in 2019