UK - Voting Behaviour and the Media

Question 1

The influence of the media:

General info:

Answer 1

Mass media (definition): venues for messages that are created for consumption by large numbers of people.

• The media has a huge impact on politics. However the impact may not always be good.
• If used against a politician, it can easily, but not always destroy their career (Corbyn), but if the media supports them, it can take their career to new heights (Blair).
• The media also affects the perception of politicians, and events, their responses to the events, elections and (referendum) campaigns.

Question 2

The influence of the media:

The changing and evolving nature of the media in politics:

Answer 2

The changing and evolving nature of the media in politics:

• More traditional avenues of media (e.g. printed press) have seen a significant decline in readership in recent years, particularly amongst young people.
• Newspapers still have large influences (e.g. setting the agenda for the day’s news and subjects).
• New forms of comms like Social Media have become important.
• Young people primarily consume their political news through Facebook and Twitter.
  
  • This has led to concern over the numbers of ‘fake news’ stories on social media sites - this has had an effect on voter choices in elections.

Question 3

The influence of the media:

Media bias and persuasion:

Answer 3

Media bias and persuasion:

• Terrestrial broadcasters (BBC) are expected to maintain impartiality and balance in political broadcasting (although there have been criticisms of bias even to the BBC) - however, newspapers and websites have no such obligation.
• The national newspapers (apart from the Guardian, Independent and the Mirror) generally support the Tories - therefore most newspaper readers reach conservative ideological papers even if they don’t buy them for political reasons. This unknowingly can shape their political views.
• EX: The Sun has 28.4million readers, and supported Thatcher and Major, but then switched to Blair, and have then been Tory ever since.
• During election campaigns, newspapers openly endorse parties and attack oppositions. E.g. 75% of 2017 coverage of Corbyn was negative, 2015 had a negative portrayal of Miliband - calling his dad an ‘enemy of Britain’ and criticising his personal presentational style.
• 1992 general election the Sun printed front page with Labour leader superimposed onto a lightbulb with the headline “If Kinnock wins today, will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights” - following the Tory victory, the paper led with “It was the Sun wot won it”.
• However, the influence of the media is up for debate as it could be the case that newspaper readers chose a particular paper due to its political stances, rather than the influence of the paper on the reader.

Question 4

The influence of the media:

Effect of the media on politics:

Answer 4

• Media is sometimes accused of adding to the cynicism surrounding UK politics and politicians.
• The tabloids focus more on political scandals and allegations of corruption or incompetence and failure, than successes.
• Politicians now receive extensive media training which has led to the impression of them avoiding answering questions properly, or being at all transparent or honest, delivering meaningless soundbites and generally appearing less like ‘real people’.
• The emphasis on ‘spin’ (the biased or distorted presentation of info in the media) also creates the impression that politicians are less trustworthy.

Question 5

The influence of the media:

The true influence of the media:

Answer 5

The true influence:

• The media can be argued to have a large impact on people’s political views and choices:
  
  • Various forms of media (esp newspapers), portray parties and politicians in particular ways, which affects what people think about them.
  • Social media exposes people to many views and opinions which may affect their own beliefs.
  • The way politicians try and present themselves to the media can affect what people think about them.
  • The media can exaggerate issues (like scandals), or successes.
  • They can spread misinformation (esp social media).
• The media simply reinforces people’s existing choices:
  
  • People tend to consume and believe newspapers which support their existing points of view.
  • People recognise bias more in media that does not support their existing view - media which reflects their view tends to be seen as ‘the truth’.
  • Social media echo chambers.
  • Newspapers and media outlets cannot be too out-of-stop with public opinion, as this will affect sales/consumption of the outlet.

Question 6

The influence of the media:

Opinion polls:

Answer 6

Opinion polls:

• Used to gauge public opinion. E.g. on a particular issue or on voting intention.
• Recently the reputation of opinion polls for accuracy and reliability has taken a hit. This was primarily due to the polls showing a strong likelihood of a hung parliament in 2015, but in fact, the Tories won a convincing majority. They also didn’t consider the likelihood that many wouldn’t vote at all.
• Opinion polls tend to underestimate support for the Tories (this is due to the ‘shy tory’ effect, those who don’t want to admit they will vote for them as they are seen as the nasty party).
• They are still important as they give a sense of not only how popular a party is, but also its leader and particular policies.
• Opinion polls may lead to a change in policy direction or party leadership.

Question 7

The influence of the media:

Examples of the media influencing elections:

Answer 7

1. Thatcher was very prominent in using the media to her advantage to get elected in 1979.
   EX: She presented herself as ‘Our lady Maggie, the Iron Lady, she changed her voice and dress to suit the audience.
   She presented well, with short hair and spoke politely and calmly with hand gestures.
   She visited tea factories in northern England, and farms to appeal to voters there/like that.
   She was presented both as the strong leader, and as ’the housewife’s friend’.
   She led the ‘meet the people campaign’ where she met voters and took photos with them (first to do this).
   She said she would be the first PM with a science degree and took photos with heart monitors on, etc.
   She employed Saatchi and Saatchi to be her campaign advisors, who made the posters of ‘Labour isn’t working’ with queues at the unemployment and GP offices.
   She focused more on general issues to appeal to the masses, rather than isolated ones (‘the five problems’ in her manifesto, spelled out simply and clearly).
   She ignored the opinion polls that said she would lose (showed her confidence as an underdog and outsider).
   She appeared on TV much more than any past leader, and revolutionised UK campaigns into US-style elections.
2. Blair had meant that the media and publications that previously backed the Tories, now backed New Labour. Blair had a personal relationship with the Sun and Rupert Murdoch.
   EX: Major tired to come off strong and stable on TV, but this was not realistic due to his poor performance prior to the election with the economy and Black Wednesday. Instead, he came off as very boring and uninspiring (Spitting Image portrayed him as such).
   Blair by contrast was dynamic, young and on magazines and papers as a chilled young man that could be with celebrities like Noel Gallagher on Vogue (Cool Britannia).
   Tories used adverts to discourage labour voters from Blair, but this was ineffective as you couldn’t really demonise Blair as a radical leftist, as he was a centrist and made that clear. And he was new, so was hard to say he was incompetent.
   The Sun also played an important role.
3. In 2019, there was little coverage of Tory islamophobia, compared with major coverage of anti-semitism in Corbyn’s Labour Party.
   EX: Even though Boris’ campaign in 2019 was terrible (he ran into a fridge and take nonsense, the media was heavily against Corbyn and presented him as the radical, communist that wanted to take everyone’s money and industry, and presented Boris as the rational alternative).

Question 8

The influence of the media:

Theories of media influence:

Answer 8

1. Agenda setting: the media’s ability to shift the public’s perception of reality by heavily pushing one political agenda as ‘the truth’. It allows the media to control the public perception.
2. Priming: how much the public is shown the news stories (e.g. the constant talk of the US election and less of the UK election makes us apathetic and less knowledgeable to our own elections). It is about how the media responds to certain issues, to prime us into thinking a certain way about the issues.
3. Framing: the media providing a focus and environment for reporting a narrative/story, influencing how audiences will understand or evaluate. They report facts in a manner that influences the public to believe there is a problem in need of a solution. This can be done through the tone or language used.
   EX: Corbyn presented negatively by 75% of news items framed him and his policies in a bad light and made the public fear him as more incompetent than is reality.