Voting and The Media Examples Flashcards
SOCIAL FACTOR: Partisan Dealignment
Since the 1970’s partisan dealignment has increased (e.g., the 1979 general election 11% swing to the Conservatives from C2 voters and 9% swing from DE voters - Thatcher).
Party Membership
In 1953 there were over 2 million Conservative party members and in 2024 there was less than 200,000 Conservative Party members across the UK.
SOCIAL FACTOR: Region
London has become a Labour stronghold - e.g., 9.2% increase of Labour voters in London between 2010 and 2019. This is most likely due to the ever-growing multicultural society within London. Despite this growing support Labour lost all 4 general elections between 2010 and 2019.
SOCIAL FACTOR: Age - Young People
Younger people have a lower turnout and tend to vote Labour (e.g., 2019 general election 19% of 18-24 year olds voted Conservative but 62% of 18-24 year olds voted Labour)
SOCIAL FACTOR: Age - Old people
Older people have a higher turnout and tend to vote Conservative (e.g., 2019 general election 64% of 65+ year olds voted Conservative but 17% of 65+ year olds voted Labour).
SOCIAL FACTOR: Gender
Women are more likely to vote Labour - presumably due to the domestic principles of the Labour party such as education, social care, the NHS etc. (E.g., 2019 general election 34% of women voted Labour compared to 31% of men.)
SOCIAL FACTOR: Ethnicity
In 2019 the Labour party gained 64% of the minority ethnic vote compared to 32% of the national share of the vote.
SOCIAL FACTOR: Education
In 2019 those with a degree or higher qualification tended to vote more for Labour. Dissimilarly those with no qualifications were over 2x more likely to vote Conservative.
POLITICAL FACTOR: Leadership and PM appearance
Tony Blair led very powerfully and effectively - 179 majority in 1997 allowed him to do so. He passed approximately 7.5 new laws per day during his premiership and passed 54% more laws per year than Thatcher. He acted as a presidential PM - e.g., reduced Cabinet meetings from 2 per week to one and made it just 30 minutes long + increased his number of SPADs from 38 to 84 by 2005. His dominant leadership plus his positive media presence is predominantly what allowed him to be re-elected in 2001.
POLITICAL FACTOR: Governing Competence
Rational Choice Theory - if the elctorate regard their elected party as ineffective or failing them then obviously they won’t re-elect them. E.g., John Major had a largely unsuccessful premiership and following the ‘Put Up or Shut Up’ speech the Labour party, led by Blair gained a huge 179 majority in 1997.
POLITICAL FACTOR: Opposition leaders
A strong opposition leader is effective if the current leader is weak. E.g., following enquiries about illegal activities involving PM Boris Johnson - in PMQs his opposition leader Keir Starmer used hostile questioning which further intensified the situation. By July 2022 Johnson was forced to resign and this put the Labour party in a position of strength.
POLITICAL FACTOR: Campaigns and Issue/ Instrumental
An effective campaign draws the electorates attention. E.g., ‘New Labour’ Movement from Blair 1997 or the ‘Get Brexit Done’ movement from Johnson in 2019.
What company controls media impartiality in the UK?
Offcom
Give an example of Offcom condemning a news outlet for breaching media impartiality?
In March 2024 - Offcom announced that GB News had breached the Broadcasting Code by having Tory MPs such as Jacob Rees-Mogg as news presenters - however no action was taken.
Print Journalism
As of Offcoms 2023 news consumption report - 26% of adults use online and printed newspapers to access the news - there is a long term decline. Print decline for UK dailies averaged 19% in second half of 2023 alone.
