Chapter 4 - The media Flashcards
What has the increased use of social media in politics led people to term this era?
The ‘post-truth’ era, as it is difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction.
What are all broadcasters in the UK bound by law to do?
Remain neutral and offer balanced reporting on elections and referendums.
What has now become a common feature of elections?
Televised debates.
What is the difference between press media and broadcasting?
The press are not required by law to be neutral and indeed are certainly not.
What did The Sun newspaper proclaim after the 1992 general election?
‘It’s the Sun Wot Won It.’ - after the Conservative’s surprise victory.
Who did the Sun support in the 2017 general election.
The Conservatives
What percentage of Sun readers voted for the Conservatives in 2017?
59% - while this is a lot, that is still 41% of readers that were not influenced by the newspaper to vote Conservative.
What does research tend to suggest about newspaper influence?
That it reflects and reinforces readers’ views rather than changing them.
What has the Sun newspaper done between 1979 and 2015?
It has backed the winning party in every general election. This may be because they changed voters minds, or that they simply backed the party that was most popular anyway - we do not know for sure which it is.
Why might the influence of the traditional broadcasting and press media be waning?
Young people are increasingly getting their information from social media.
What advantage does social media present?
It is very useful to small parties like UKIP and the Greens who do not have the resources to compete with large parties in conventional campaigning.
Who carries out opinion polls and how?
Research organisations that use a sample of typical voters.
What are opinion polls used for?
- Establish voting intentions.
- Gauge leaders’ popularity.
- ‘listen in’ to public opinion.
When were opinion polls first used?
In the 1940s by the Gallup organisation.
What did Gallup successfully predict that no one else did?
Labour’s 1945 general election win.
What did opinion polling predict in the run-up to the 2015 general election?
That there would be a second hung parliament, and that the SNP would hold the ‘balance of power’ and enter into a coalition with Labour.
Given the opinion poll predictions in the run-up to the 2015 general election, what did the Conservatives start to do?
They began campaigning off the back of the fear that there would be a Labour-SNP coalition, with the Scots calling the shots.
What 2 questions do we need to ask about opinion polls?
- Do they influence voting behaviour?
- Does it matter that they are inaccurate?
What might opinion polls leading up to the 2015 general election have done to the Liberal Democrats?
Opinion polling showed the Liberal Democrats doing poorly in the campaigning, which might have influenced voters to not vote for them as it looked like they would be wasting their vote, leading to them having a smaller share of the vote than otherwise would have been.
What did opinion polls show the outcome of the 2017 general election being?
A Conservative victory.
What do opinion polling predictions tend to be?
Inaccurate
What are the 3 arguments in favour of banning opinion polls?
- They may influence the way people vote.
- They tend to be inaccurate and so are misleading to the public.
- Arguably politicians should not be slaves to changing public opinion.
What are the 2 arguments in favour of keeping opinion polls?
- If publishing them is banned, they will become available privately and benefit rich organisations.
- The information can still be useful in guiding politicians actions.
What are swing votes?
People who are undecided on which way to vote and whose votes are therefore ‘up for grabs’.
