Media in the UK

Most people who encounter politics in their everyday lives will do so through the media and the media a powerful aspect of political life. Media can positively or negatively frame how and/or frame how certain ideas come across.

2015 General Election- Labour Leader Ed Miliband was seen by many voters as a bit geeky/incompetent and the Sun newspaper took a photo of him eating a bacon sandwich awkwardly. Although this wasn’t a substantial critique of Labour policies, the image cemented Miliband in the eyes of voters as someone a bit awkward.
2017 General Election- Conservative PM Theresa May was running a poor campaign and Conservative MPs were complaining that she was seen as boring/wooden among voters. She tried to fix this by being interviewed on ITV News and was asked ‘what is the naughtiest thing you’ve ever done’. He response, ‘I once ran through a field of wheat’, reinforced the idea of her being a somewhat uninteresting individual.
2019 General Election- Labour proposed a policy of state-investment in high-speed internet and lots of Conservative-leaning papers termed this policy ‘Broadband Communism’. However, during the Covid-19 pandemic of the following year, Rishi Sunak as Chancellor pledged funds for a similar (albeit smaller) project to aid students homeschooling and this was framed as a sensible policy in response to an unprecedented period of disruption.

Other important idea about media is that it is wrong to assume that people who read a certain newspaper are being brainwashed into thinking what the newspaper thinks. People regularly read newspapers that they disagree with for lots of reasons. For example, if you are a Conservative voter who happens to be interested in classical music, you may buy the Guardian because it has a famously good culture section. Similarly, the Sun dedicates a lot of coverage to football and someone may buy the paper for only that section and not read their political articles.

\ There is also considerable debate about whether newspapers influence their readers or simply reinforce existing views. On the one hand, there are occasions where newspaper readers will come out in favour of policies that are not currently being discussed in politics (which would suggest that newspapers are able to change the conversation and have an impact). However, because news companies are mostly for-profit entities, newspapers have to publish stories that they know their readers will be interested in. If the Daily Mail, whose readers are famously Eurosceptic and opposed to high levels of immigration, began running articles supporting less restrictive immigration laws and rejoining the EU, their readers wouldn’t suddenly change their minds. Instead, these readers would buy a different paper.

Media types

Newspapers:

Most newspapers in the UK are conservative ideologically or broadly support the Conservative Party (e.g. The Sun, The Times, The Telegraph, The Express, The Daily Mail).
The only exceptions to this are The Guardian (centre to centre-left), The Mirror (centre-left), and the Morning Star (left to far-left).
Newspapers are under no obligation to be impartial however during elections there are some restrictions on what newspapers can publish regarding the accuracy/veracity of stories.
If newspapers make errors they are required to make corrections, however this is frequently done in smaller font or a less important page than the front. If they refuse to print corrections after being found to have misled their readers, then they can be sued for libel.
Newspapers regularly make endorsements of parties during elections but these are often unsurprising (e.g. The Telegraph will never endorse Labour).
Although most people no longer read newspapers, their opinions can still be amplified by other news media.
Articles from newspapers are posted onto websites and can be links to these webpages can be circulated on social media.
Additionally, journalists at newspapers are invited onto TV broadcasts to discuss current affairs (e.g. Question Time or Newsnight on the BBC). Current affairs programmes on Sunday mornings also regularly begin with a ‘paper review’ in which the hosts go through the front pages of newspapers with studio guests.

\ Social Media:

Increasingly, social media has been a powerful tool for spreading political messages. Social media is especially good for parties that do not gain widespread coverage in traditional media, either because of partisanship or because of perceived lack of relevance.
For instance, in the 2017 general election Labour ran a very successful campaign on social media to appeal to young people because the party new that their lack of coverage in newspapers would not matter to younger voters.
Unlike traditional media, which has professional standards that journalists need to follow and editors that check the accuracy of stories, social media does not have these.
On the one hand, this is a good thing as people who have previously been excluded from traditional media have an outlet for providing a unique perspective on political events.
On the other, claims can be made without proper fact-checking and ‘fake news’ can spread rapidly. The role of fake news and disinformation does have a political impact on elections and referendums and as such it is important for social media users to ensure that what they share is accurate.

\ TV News:

Politicians regularly appear on TV in order to put across their ideas/opinions about politics, and this can be done in support of the government or critiquing government actions.
Sometimes supporters of the government will criticise the opposition but this is less important as the opposition have little day-to-day political power.
This can be in the context of rolling TV news like the BBC News Channel, current affairs programmes like Question Time, or special interviews with key political figures.
During elections TV debates between party leaders have also become a modern feature of British political life, but arguably this has led to people increasingly thinking of the UK as a more presidential system like the United States.

Other TV:

Sometimes television shows that have a political theme are able to cast a politician in a particular light and that will have an impact on political behaviour.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the TV show ‘Spitting Image’ did quite cutting satire at the expense of the Thatcher and Major governments.
The characters were all portrayed by puppets done in the style of newspaper caricatures.
One of the characters was John Major and the creators of the show decided that he was boring and uncharismatic, and the best way to portray this visually was to have his puppet always in a grey suit, with grey hair and grey skin.
Although Major himself wasn’t quite this dull, it did reinforce people’s existing belief of him as someone not especially interesting. \n

Opinion Polls:

Opinion polls are often commissioned by news organisations to gain an understanding of public opinion towards certain policies, parties and/or leaders.
The numbers provided will have a ‘margin of error’ of +/- a certain amount. Polls with a smaller margin of error are considered more reliable. Polls are conducting by polling agencies and seek to get a balanced sample of different demographics (e.g. gender, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, previous voting affiliation) so that the results can be extrapolated out to apply to the whole country.
Opinion polls are not predictions, they are snapshots of opinion at a specific moment (much like a photograph).
Polls gain media coverage and shape the way in which journalists discuss politics but opinion polling does not become that important until we are within a few weeks/days of an election.
Opinion polls are also something that can impact voter behaviour as people who believe that their candidate will definitely win ‘because of the polls’ may not feel the need to go out and vote.
In such a situation, the party who the person was going to vote for then does less well as turnout of their voters is lower.