media

• Influence of media in elections

  • Papers come out in favour of political party, campaign for a party before elections
  • EG. Cons won 4 elections from 2010-2019 with majority support from the press but lost in 2024 - no support from Sun, Sunday times, Financial times
  • EG. 2019 - Cons partly launched their manifesto in Telegraph, 2024 -Telegraph published a tactical voting guide to try and stop Starmer winning a landslide majority
  • Tv debates/ interviews watched by millions of viewers, shaping perception of parties and leaders - have to maintain tight control on media image
  • EG. 2017 May refusing to take part in head to head debate with Corbyn, made her look weak
  • EG. 2019 Johnson refused to be interviewed by Andrew Neil, fearing mishap could affect campaign
  • Agenda setting - Brexit 2019
  • Key moments can go viral
  • EG. 2019 Jacob RM comments on Grenfell fire condemned by many
  • EG. 2024 Sunak leaving D-Day conmemoration early
• Media doesn’t have influence during elections

  • Voters have own opinions, many have strong allegiances to parties, media is likely to change this significantly during election period
  • EG. 2017 YouGov revealed that 30% Sun and 39% FT readers voted Lab, despite both papers backing Cons
  • EG. 2024 pre-election polling, majority of right wing news readers intended to vote Lab - 52% of Daily Mail readers, 47% of Telegraph readers
  • Most individuals consume media they already agree with/ ideologies they are aligned to - especially the case with social media where algorithms play a key role in displaying content that reader is likely to prefer
• Influence of media in scrutiny of gov

  • Often exposes failures, generates public support to scrutinise
  • EG. Crucial in exposing partygate scandal, through receiving leaks and exposing diff parts of story gradually in order to cause maximum damage - brought down Johnson gov
  • EG. 2024 freebiegate - Starmer and Lord Allí - exposed important gov scandal and led to low poll ratings despite having just own a majority
  • Ministers interviewed on radio / TV - journalists can question and expose failings
  • EG. Serious of disastrous radio interviews - exposed failure of Truss econ policy
  • Parl shut down during COVID - news conferences highly important, media became main source of opposition to gov
  • Media important vehicle for PGs/ public to influence and pressure gov
  • EG. 2024 Post office horizon scandal, received significant public attention after ITV documentary - gov introduced new/improved compensation for wrongfully convicted
• Influence of media in scrutiny is insignificant

  • Parl plays more of an important role, media only provides platform for politicians to scrutinise other politicians
  • EG. Question time, weekly programme on BBC
  • Allegations of bias against BBC, Laura Kuenssberg accused of spreading fake news - limits extent to which they can hold gov to account
  • Gov seeks to control the news agenda / favours some journalists
  • EG. 2023 Braverman controversial visit to Rwanda - invited right wing media outlet journalists, Daily Mail ran headline ‘Bravermans bold step for Britain’, Guradian had to rely on second hand sources and published more critical headlines ‘Rwanda plan - blow to refugee rights?’
  • Stark difference in reporting highlights extent of newspaper bias and alignment, gov attempts to manipulate coverage undermines potential for scrutiny
  • Much of the pop pays little attention to politics, especially outside of campaign timeframe
• Media undermines democracy

  • Oversimplifies key political issues, focuses on leaders, personalities and party images rather than policy
  • EG. 2017/9 election mainstream news supported Cons, focused on Corbyn personality/ past rather than policy, Daily Mail - Corbin
  • Shapes public opinion based on emotive narratives, sensationalist headlines, personality politics rather than giving voters objective, balanced info
  • Newspapers notoriously partisan - will alter allegiance based on current circumstances
  • EG. Sun switched from Lab to Cons - Thatcher apporach to TUs in line with owner Murdochs business interests BUT run up to 1997, switched back to Lab as Blair had more of a business friendly apporach
  • EG. 2024 Guardian reported that Murdoch met with Sunak 5 times between 2022-23 - frequent interactions suggest Murdoch holds significant power, politicians seek to get positive media coverage
  • Murdoch owns Times, Sun, Sky news
• Media undermines demo (2)

  • Govs increasingly making important policy announcements in TV studios rather than HOC, summarising ministerial speeches in press before official delivery
  • EG. 2024 Reeves criticised by speaker Hoyle for prematurely discussing budget details to media through broadcast interviews without first giving MPs formal ministerial statement
  • Social media particularly damaging, allows influential members of public with large platforms to spread misinformation, not held to account
  • EG. 2024 Elon Musk criticised for spreading disinformation and hate against Lab gov, particularly Home office minister Jess Phillips ‘evil witch’, ‘rape genocide apologist’ - calling for her to be jailed, dispute over historic grooming cases, Musk calls for national inquiry despite limited knowledge of issue
• Media doesn’t undermine demo

  • Free media vital feature of healthy democracy, essential role in highlighting key political issues, represent matters that are of public concern
  • EG. 2023 Telegraph published over 100k leaked messages from Hancock, revealing details of gov handling of pandemic - shows how right wing leaning media can act independently, prioritising public interest
  • Growth of social media - many more individuals able to have a voice in politics, enabling of greater freedom of speech, limits influence of biased newspapers
  • EG. News circulation declined significantly - 2024 daily mail had circ of 736k, comapred to 1.85 mil in 2012, 2.4 mil in 1997
• Social media more important than newspapers

  • Central to how younger voters access political info
  • EG. 2024 election YouGov - 43% of people use social media as a source of news, majority of those under 50 access news through SM
  • Can enable scandals, when things go viral etc
  • EG. 2019 Jacob RM comments on Grenfell fire condemned
  • EG. 2024 Sunak leaving D-day commemorations early spread quickly on social media
  • Targeted advertising reaches specific groups of voters, who may switch support
  • EG. 2024 election - spending on digital advertising was higher than previous election
  • Whotargetsme - Lab spent more than othes, over £2 mil on Google ads during campaign, over £1.15 mil on meta advertising
  • No other party spent more than 150k on Google ads, Cons 650k on Meta
  • Lab bought online advertising spots, even on Daily Mail which backs Cons
  • Targeted advertising allows it to reach demographics who wouldn’t normally vote for their party
• Newspaper still important

  • Around 7mil people read newspapers daily, key source of political info, particularly for older voters
  • EG. 2017 public claimed that newspapers had more influence than social media in terms of voting choice - 32% vs 26%
  • 2024 Starmer + right wing publications - importance of press for older voters (traditionally vote Cons)
  • EG. 2023 wrote a piece in Telegraph praising Thatcher -can be seen as an attempt to reposition party that respects traditional values and economic policies to win over voters that felt alienated by Corbyn
  • As news papers are biased - big impact in changing opinions on parties
  • EG. Cons won 4 elections 2010-19, lost in 2024 after losing support from majority of press - Sun, financial times, sunday times
  • EG. 1992 Sun wot won it - has backed the winner in every GE since 1979
  • EG. 2019 Cons partly published manifesto in Telegraph, 2024 tactical voting guide to stop Lab landslide
• Broadcast media important

  • Visual impression of party leaders, including during TV debates etc
  • EG. 2017 negative coverage focused on Corbyns personality and scruffy appearance rather than policy
  • EG. 2017 May refusing to take part in head to head debates made her look weak in eyes of voters
  • Tv / radio interviews with key politicians and ministers important in holding to account
  • EG. Newsnight programme exposes gov/ opposition failures such as the transmission of COVID to care homes during pandemic
  • EG. Series of disastrous local radio interviews contributed to exposing failures of Truss economic policy
  • Before 2024 election - 58% of people accessed news through TV, 42% through radio compared to 43% for social media and 42% from newspapers
• Broadcast media important (2)

  Seen as important in raising awareness to issues and changing policy as a result

  • EG. 2024 Post office horizon scandal received significant public attention following an ITV documentary and susbsequnethical Newsnight investigations, pressured politicians to take action so gov announced new and improved compensation programme for wrongly convicted sub-postmasters
  • EG. 2025 Netlfix show adolesence - sparked significant political debate, Starmer advocating for it to be shown in schools to raise awareness about dangers of online radicalisation, contributed to surge in support for schools banning mobile phones
• Broadcast media not important

  • Arguably only fuelled by social media, allowing short clips to go viral, giving them a much greater and wider impact
  • EG. 2024 Cons minister for crime, policing and fire Phillip was embarrassed on question time, appeared to think Congo was a part of Rwanda when defending his governments deportation policy - the clip of him went viral on social media, allowing far more viewers to see it than original question time session
  • Social media does not have to be politically neutral unlike TV and radio - allowed people to put forward political opinion and sway others, having more impact
  • TV debates impact should not be overstated - most veers have already made up their mind before watching, only small portion of electorate watch them
  • EG. June 2024 head to head debate between Starmer and Sunak - viewers split exactly 50/50 on who performed better, watched bu 4.8 mil, 2 mil less than equivalent debate in 2019
• Opinion polls impact

  • Greater influence on turnout - turnout likely to be higher if polls suggest that the result will be close
  • EG. 2024 turnout was just 59.9%, influenced by the fact that polls suggested Lab would have landslide victory
  • EG. Brexit and 2015 election had relatively high turnout as it was not clear what the result would be
  • If election seems decided, many people may be convinced that their vote has little value as it is unlikely to affect result
  • Opinion polls can influence tactical voting by giving voters indication of who is likely to win, both in constituency and nationally
  • EG. 2015 the fact that opinion polls looked very close may have convinced many lib dem supporters to vote for Cons in order to avoid a Lab victory
  • Can be important in shaping party policies
  • EG. 2022 polls showed significant sections of Uk public being opposed to trans rights, played a role in Cons opposing it too
• Opinion polls not important

  • Majority of voters pay little attention to polling, when polling reaches voters it is often through social media
  • Can be wrong when people do not want to disclose who they are voting for, can lead to underestimation of support
  • EG. 1992 failed to predict Majors victory
  • EG. 2015 predicted that Lab would be wiped out by SNP, and both Lab and Cons would have equal votes -but Cons had 37% and Lab had 30%

  BUT - in both 2019 and 2024 polling was largely accurate, predicting Cons maj in 2019, Lab landslide in 2024