The role of the media (add back after adding video notes)

Question 1

What impact does the political bias of newspapers have (with evidence)?

Answer 1

1. Elections
2. Might affect something like the EU referendum & attitudes to Europe

Evidence for 1 & 2:
- The Telegraph, Daily Mail, Daily Express, The Sun & the Daily Star have all been hostile to the EU for thirty years: all supported Brexit in 2016
- in the 2 weeks prior to the referendum only 10% of newspaper articles were pro-Remain; 36% were pro-Leave
- 70% of Sun & Daily Express readers voted Leave; 66% of Daily Mail readers; 55% of Daily Telegraph readers

Question 2

What research suggests the political bias of newspapers & what is the opposing argument?

Answer 2

• one piece of research stated that: “when it came to the EU Referendum vote, people were more likely to follow the position of the newspaper they read than the political party they identify with.” -> shows the media & newspapers do have an impact on influencing political opinion
• however, the four most read anti-EU papers had a combined circulation of 3.2m in 2016 - 17.4m people voted Leave so only 1 in 5. as well as this, it is important to note that 44% of Daily Mirror readers voted Leave despite the paper being pro-Remain

Question 3

Summarise the research done by Press Gazette on media bias

Answer 3

• Press Gazette’s Brexitometer survey showed a strong bias in UK national press news coverage against remaining in the EU
• they were made aware that, to a certain extent, front pages merely reflect what is going on in the world & can’t be said to be a symptom of bias
• however, it was interesting to notice that a Guardian front-page was judged to be a story which slightly favours Leave even though the paper generally leans towards Remain
• but, looking at the extent to which the Telegraph, Mail, Express & Sun in particular have chosen front-page stories which favour Leave - it seems fair to say that they have been heavily biased in their coverage
• despite the bias, the fact that coverage in The Times is evenly split between front-page stories favouring Remain & stories favouring Leave shows it has been possible to cover the referendum campaign without skewing one way or another