Elections and the Media

Question 1

Who became PM in 1979 GE?

Answer 1

Thatcher

Question 2

What was the turnout in 1979 GE?

Answer 2

76%

Question 3

What was the size of the government’s majority in 1979 GE?

Answer 3

43

Question 4

Who became PM in 1997 GE?

Answer 4

Tony Blair

Question 5

What was the turnout in 1997 GE?

Answer 5

71.4%

Question 6

What was the majority in 1997 GE?

Answer 6

179 - landslide

Question 7

Who became PM in 2010 GE?

Answer 7

David Cameron (coalition)

Question 8

What was the turnout in 2010 GE?

Answer 8

65.1%

Question 9

What was the government’s majority in 2010?

Answer 9

None, coalition formed creating majority of 77

Question 10

Is TV important in election campaigns?

Answer 10

Considered a crucial element

Question 11

How many people watched the first leaders’ debate in 2010 campaign?

Answer 11

around 9.6 million

Question 12

How many people watched a leaders’ debate ahead of 2017 GE?

Answer 12

only around 3.5 million - decline

Question 13

How many people said TV was very influential in deciding who to vote for in 2015?

Answer 13

62%

Question 14

Advantages of TV

Answer 14

Explain manifestos/policies in an accessible way

Major channels (e.g BBC) are required to show impartial coverage of all main parties

Question 15

Evidence that TV is reliable

Answer 15

BBC Charter insists upon political neutrality

Question 16

Why has the internet only recently become influential?

Answer 16

Only became significant in last few elections - in 2000, only 26% of households had internet access)

Question 17

Evidence to show social media/the internet is important for elections?

Answer 17

2015 - Conservative party reportedly spent £100,000 a month on Facebook advertising

Question 18

Who is the internet most influential for?

Answer 18

Young people - in 2015, 79% of 18-24 year olds relied almost entirely on online sources to inform themselves

Question 19

Caveat of argument that social media is important?

Answer 19

Only really influential for youngest of electorate - e.g. in 2015 election social media did not play a major role overall despite its influence on younger people

Question 20

Weakness of social media as a source of info during elections?

Answer 20

Tendency of significant bias due to lack of impartiality requirements

Question 21

Evidence of newspaper readership falling?

Answer 21

The Sun -

3.8 million daily readers in 1997, 1.7 million in 2016

(online readership increasing to compensate for this though - approx. 8.1 daily readers in print and online in 2023

Question 22

How can we see that newspapers used to be very significant?

Answer 22

‘it was the Sun wot won it’ in 1992

Question 23

Evidence that there is still a strong correlation between newspapers and political views?

Answer 23

2017 - 79% of Telegraph readers voted Conservative

During Brexit campaign, newspapers supporting ‘Leave’ had 3 million more daily readers than remainers - influenced result?

Question 24

Evidence that newspapers don’t actually influence political ideas?

Answer 24

Newspapers tend to reinforce existing political views - readers are selective and tend to choose papers they are already politically aligned to

Question 25

Evidence that newspapers have little impact on election results?

Answer 25

No paper backed the LibDems in 2005, but they still gained 10 seats

Question 26

Statistic to show newspapers are not currently very influential?

Answer 26

2015 GE - only 25% of voters said newspapers were most influential in choosing who to vote for

Question 27

Biggest weaknesses of newspapers as sources of political information

Answer 27

No neutrality requirement - newspapers are infamously partisan

They tend to simplify news and policies, focusing excessively on personalities - e.g. Ed Miliband

Question 28

Evidence that opinion polls are not particularly important?

Answer 28

Failed to predict Major’s 1992 majority

Failed to predict Conservative majority in 2015, predicting Labour and Conservatives would win around 34% of the vote each

Question 29

Examples of opinion poll firms

Answer 29

Ipsos MORI
Populus
YouGov

Question 30

Is there bias in the media?

Answer 30

Newspapers = notoriously partisan (e.g. the Sun backing Thatcher’s Conservative party in 1979 due to her hard-line stance on trade unions)

Social media can be biased as platforms do not control their own content

However, TV required to be balanced

Question 31

Is the media actually influential?

Answer 31

Most people read newspapers that reflect their pre-existing political outlook

Predictive nature of social media algorithms creates echo chambers

Retrospective voting model more important?

Question 32

Role of the media in the 1979 election?

Answer 32

Advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi were employed by the Conservatives to help run election campaign (e.g. focusing on polishing Thatcher’s image for the media!!)

Callaghan’s image was damaged by the Sun newspaper’s headline ‘Crisis? What crisis?’

Question 33

Role of the media in 1997 election?

Answer 33

Blair used TV to appeal to voters (e.g. appearing on daytime TV to target his campaign to women)

Blair decided to court Rupert Murdoch because he knew the influence of the Sun newspaper (‘it was the Sun wot won it’)

Question 34

Role of the media in the 2010 election?

Answer 34

The Sun announced that it was switching support to the Conservatives

TV debates caused Nick Clegg’s popularity to soar temporarily (72% approval rating when he had been relatively unknown a few months earlier)

‘Bigotgate’

Question 35

Example of Sun headline seeking to discredit someone

Answer 35

2017 - ‘don’t chuck Britain in the Cor-bin’

Question 36

Is the Sun newspaper influential?

Answer 36

Has backed every election winner since 1992 - however, likely that Murdoch predicts who will win and shifts the Sun’s support, rather than the reverse

Question 37

Evidence of decline of the Sun’s influence (2017)

Answer 37

Extremely anti-Corbyn, but he still managed to gain a lot of seats, resulting in a hung parliament

Question 38

Recent example of the media having a key impact on politics (ITV)

Answer 38

The Post Office Horizon scandal was thrown into the mainstream media by an ITV documentary, which brought about public awareness and pressured politicians to act.