Media - notes

Impartiality

Ofcom ensures for media impartiality
RT (Russian favoured channel )fined 200k due to biased reporting on the war in Syria in 2019
GB label themselves as right wing
Social media is unregulated

Newspapers

Are used to set the political climate
Generally are right wing, supporting Con - Sun and Daily Mail
“It was the sun wot won it” - Scathing portrays of Kinnock heavily boosted major’s election campaign in 1992
Media Standards trust labelled 77% of newspapers as hostile towards Ed Miliband
Can be used for bad - Harsh attacks on character and gov especially Kinnock and Brown after 2008 financial crash, generally supported the opposition parties in 2010
Can be used for good - Daily Mail campaigned for investigation into the police for poor handling of Stephen Lawrence case

Broadcast media

TV is the publics main source of media so critical for leaders to have a good image
Journalists are employed to help improve media portrayal - Blair and Campbell
Clegg strong TV performances, Cleggmania, but uninfluential as LD lost 5 seats since 2005
PMQ can be used for soundbiting rather than answering the question
Leads to poor scrutiny - Starmer avoids all 6 questions asked about Mandelson’s appointment and asked 3 times by Hoyle to answer the question

Social media

Becoming increasingly important - 80% of the UK are on social media
Used for campaigning - Lab spent £2.4m on social media ads in 2024, double that of Cons
Smaller parties use it to appeal to youth - Ed Davey challenging Starmer to a game of FIFA on tiktok
Headlines are often exaggerated as the attention span of the public is decreasing and people are less likely to read a whole article - Leads to the spreading of misinformation which may be a huge factor in a voters decision - “350m to NHS” during Con brexit campaign
Can be used to instantly test public opinion
Can help the gov implement policies desired by the people helping to amass support for local and general elections

Opinion polls

Used regularly since 1945
Most accurate are IPSOS, YouGov, Populus
Used to judge public intention or attitudes to an issue
+ = Suggestion of a close content may increase turnout - 2014 Indyref 84.6%, May lead to party action - Johnson -51 satisfaction rating by Jan ‘22, Can be used to show changing public attitudes - Russia as a threat 34% Sep ‘21 → 64% Mar ‘22
- = Not always accurate leading to misinformed decisions - In 2015 56 polls resulted saying that the people of the UK would vote to remain in the EU and only 10 polls said the people would vote to leave, influencing Cameron’s decision to announce the referenda