component 1: media Flashcards
what is media?
- media are the poltiical and social institutions concerned with the spread of knowledge.
- 3 different types of media: traditional: communication before the digital age. New: media during the digital age/ using electronical devices, social media: coommunication via sharing content.
-is media irrelevant?
yes: print media is in decline, readership fell 52%, independcent newspaper doesn’t exist. print is unpopular with working class, young and ethnic groups. Media is now online - 72% use online media, BBC news online, independent is completely online. Social media influence is underestimated - encouraged 1.25 m to register in 2017.
no: print media is still popular: readership of 10 million. popular among ABC1 voters and over 65 and these are mroe likely to vote. 55% of adults watch BBC1 each week, 75% use BBC as source of news. Social media spreads fake news.
media bias
newspapers political preference is conservative but can change preferncee.g. sun was labour as Blair was close to rupert murdoch head of the sun and world news, but the sun switched to conservatives in 2019.
1: The Sun - conservative - 7 million in readership, 20% of the market share
2: Daily Mail - conservative - 6 million readership, 18% of market share.
3: guardian - labour, 4 million readership, 11% of the market share.
does the media have influence?
Broadcast media: YES - dominated by few big institutions, parties tailor announcements to news cycles, can make politicians look good = success e.g.Blair. NO - trust declines from 72% to 46%, usually write news sories already circulated not original.
Print: YES - popular among ABC1 and over 65 voters usually most likely to vote, 10 million readership, has evolved and moved online, create news stories. NO - people only spend 16 min a week looking at enws, readership in decline, write public opinion do not shape it.
Social media: YES: popular among young, working, ethnic groups, allows mroe voices to be heard, parties use it e.g. 2019 cons used it to highlight negative effectes of labout policies. NO: fake news.
do opinion polls have a positive impact on UK democracy?
agree: 1 - parties and gov use them to inform decision making as they show attitudes of public. 2 - encourage political participation and public debate. 3 - give media, politicians and public equal access to attitudes of public. 4 - political leadership use them to trace electoral support between elections.
disagree: 1 - ubcorrect polling can lead to unpopular decision making e.g. may called election in april 2017, polls showed con lead of 17% against labour, lead was actually 2.4%. 2 - media become obsessed with polls and neglect focusing on policies. 3 - can lead to tcatical voting. 4 - can influence the elections/outcomes that they are supposed to measure. 5 - parties become too reliant on polls.
