Chapter 4 - The media

Question 1

What has the increased use of social media in politics led people to term this era?

Answer 1

The ‘post-truth’ era, as it is difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction.

Question 2

What are all broadcasters in the UK bound by law to do?

Answer 2

Remain neutral and offer balanced reporting on elections and referendums.

Question 3

What has now become a common feature of elections?

Answer 3

Televised debates.

Question 4

What is the difference between press media and broadcasting?

Answer 4

The press are not required by law to be neutral and indeed are certainly not.

Question 5

What did The Sun newspaper proclaim after the 1992 general election?

Answer 5

‘It’s the Sun Wot Won It.’ - after the Conservative’s surprise victory.

Question 6

Who did the Sun support in the 2017 general election.

Answer 6

The Conservatives

Question 7

What percentage of Sun readers voted for the Conservatives in 2017?

Answer 7

59% - while this is a lot, that is still 41% of readers that were not influenced by the newspaper to vote Conservative.

Question 8

What does research tend to suggest about newspaper influence?

Answer 8

That it reflects and reinforces readers’ views rather than changing them.

Question 9

What has the Sun newspaper done between 1979 and 2015?

Answer 9

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.

Question 10

Why might the influence of the traditional broadcasting and press media be waning?

Answer 10

Young people are increasingly getting their information from social media.

Question 11

What advantage does social media present?

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

Who carries out opinion polls and how?

Answer 12

Research organisations that use a sample of typical voters.

Question 13

What are opinion polls used for?

Answer 13

• Establish voting intentions.
• Gauge leaders’ popularity.
• ‘listen in’ to public opinion.

Question 14

When were opinion polls first used?

Answer 14

In the 1940s by the Gallup organisation.

Question 15

What did Gallup successfully predict that no one else did?

Answer 15

Labour’s 1945 general election win.

Question 16

What did opinion polling predict in the run-up to the 2015 general election?

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

Given the opinion poll predictions in the run-up to the 2015 general election, what did the Conservatives start to do?

Answer 17

They began campaigning off the back of the fear that there would be a Labour-SNP coalition, with the Scots calling the shots.

Question 18

What 2 questions do we need to ask about opinion polls?

Answer 18

1. Do they influence voting behaviour?
2. Does it matter that they are inaccurate?

Question 19

What might opinion polls leading up to the 2015 general election have done to the Liberal Democrats?

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

What did opinion polls show the outcome of the 2017 general election being?

Answer 20

A Conservative victory.

Question 21

What do opinion polling predictions tend to be?

Answer 21

Inaccurate

Question 22

What are the 3 arguments in favour of banning opinion polls?

Answer 22

1. They may influence the way people vote.
2. They tend to be inaccurate and so are misleading to the public.
3. Arguably politicians should not be slaves to changing public opinion.

Question 23

What are the 2 arguments in favour of keeping opinion polls?

Answer 23

1. If publishing them is banned, they will become available privately and benefit rich organisations.
2. The information can still be useful in guiding politicians actions.

Question 24

What are swing votes?

Answer 24

People who are undecided on which way to vote and whose votes are therefore ‘up for grabs’.

Question 25

Who do older votes tend to vote for and how consistent is it?

Answer 25

Conservative and UKIP - this is consistent.

Question 26

How does region affect voting behaviour?

Answer 26

• South of England is solidly Conservative.
• The Midlands are mixed.
• The North is mostly Labour.

Question 27

Who do black and Muslim voters tend to vote for?

Answer 27

Labour

Question 28

Does gender impact voting behaviour?

Answer 28

It does not appear to impact at all.

Question 29

What is valence?

Answer 29

The image of a party and its leader, and the belief of competence in both.

Question 30

What sort of impact does economic performance have on voting intentions?

Answer 30

Strong

Question 31

What sort of impact does valence have on voting intentions?

Answer 31

Very strong

Question 32

What sort of impact does rational choice have on voting intentions?

Answer 32

Moderate

Question 33

What is class dealignment?

Answer 33

A trend whereby progressively fewer people consider themselves to be a member of a particular social class and class has less impact of voting behaviour.

Question 34

What are the 4 social classes?

Answer 34

• AB
• C1
• C2
• DE

Question 35

Which social class most supports the Conservatives?

Answer 35

AB

Question 36

Which social class most supports Labour?

Answer 36

DE

Question 37

Who did the Daily Mirror support in the 2017 general election?

Answer 37

Very strongly Labour

Question 38

What percentage of Daily Mirror readers voted for the party the newspaper backed in 2017?

Answer 38

68% - which is high, but shows that many people did not follow the newspaper too.