The media has heavily been embedded within British society, masses across the United Kingdom rely on these different mediums as a resource for political information. In this essay I will argue the importance of the traditional media and the role it has in British politics. Traditional media refers to any form of media that was created over half a century ago, this includes newspapers, television and radio. Although the traditional media holds an important role in shaping the people’s thoughts on politics, it’s reign as a political influence is under threat.
Newspapers, television and radio cover political news daily and with their large combined readership this makes them a very powerful tool in politics for gaining favourable votes during the elections. Recently the media’s influence in British politics has been questioned, however looking at the past there is evidence in support of traditional media’s large impact in British politics.
The influence which the media holds can be split into two forms, this being short term and long term. An example of a short term influence which derived from traditional media came from the newspapers coverage of the 1997 General Election. During this time there is an insurgence of political coverage by the media which spreads across traditional and new media outlets. The result of the 1997 election was a New Labour landslide victory, this victory was thought to have been one by the media. Whereas the previous election saw a Conservative win and during this time three out of the eleven national papers were in support of a conservative government, however leading up to the 1997 elections there was a change of papers political support and 6/11 papers were in support of the labour party. A historically pro-conservative paper The Sun was one of the papers which changed its backing during the campaigning.This had a significant impact on the result of the election as The Sun is the biggest newspaper, selling millions of copies daily. Furthermore, as they have been pro-conservative in the past, they may have influenced their large readership who would have previously voted differently, in favour of Tony Blair and his government. The Sun even acknowledged just how important they were in the election by printing ‘It’s The Sun wot won it’ (April 11 1997) the next day.
There are also long-term political influences which are as a result of the traditional media, this being in between the chaos of political campaigns for the general elections. This example came from a conservative victory in 1979 where the conservatives received a boost as a result of the ‘Winter of discontent’, where the media coverage of the nationwide spread of strikes carried out by the public sectors for higher pay rises as a result of the Labour parties pay caps which were put into place took away any credibility they had and undermining the labour government. This proves the importance of traditional media in British politics because a political victory coincides with support from the media. (Raymond Kuhn 2007)
Given traditional media’s widespread reach, its importance relative to British politics can be transparent. The political parties which have gained a political victory have historically had the support of traditional media, but it can be argued that in terms of newspapers, which are known to be the most politically biased medium their consumers choose the paper they read based of their political affiliation, therefore not actually reflecting on the electoral vote (Newton and Brynin 2001). The same can be said for television and radio in terms of their impact in politics, because these two mediums are seen more as a way to consume political information and make a decision based of the arguments from both sides because they have been equally represented. This equal representation is due to broadcasting being bound by regulation to be politically impartial.
As well as the media recognising their own position in British politics, so has the government. The media holds the power of agenda setting and the government have realised that and is actively putting more focus on news management, so they can dominate the new agenda (Raymond Kuhn 2007). Previously the government has been more secretive in their dealings, however after realising this they have taken a new approach to the media by publicising their policies in the hopes that it translates to a favourable electoral vote. (Franklin 1994). Evidence of the government exerting more focus into news management came after Tony Blair and New labours victory in the 1997 general election. Management of the news had been referred to as an ‘integrated part of contemporary government, and not an optional extra’ (O’shaughnessy, 2004). With the new shift in focusing on dominating the news agenda, labour advisers would collaborate with the media to publish and cover government accomplishments and try to cover up any misconduct in the hopes to keep popular in the British public eye.
Another great example of the significant impact the traditional media has on British politics is the 1992 General election, which resulted in the Conservative victory which was as a result of conservative tabloids being able to persuade the undecided voters. Traditional media’s work and their coverage has been suggested to be politically influential and resulting in swaying the votes and that this victory was as a result of the tabloids (Curtice and Semetko 1994; Harrop and Seammel, 1992; Newton 1993).Newspapers are the supreme form of traditional media, even to this day in relation to political influence because it gains campaigning parties the vote. Looking at the circulation numbers of the national papers in June 2018 demonstrates the extent of influence that print media can exert over the British public. The Sun was the highest selling paper with over 1.45 millions copies selling on a day to day basis, next up was the Daily Mail trailing not far behind selling 1.26 million copies, even The Guardian which had the lowest circulation numbers still reached a significant audience of 138,000 people, This goes on to prove the importance that the traditional media holds in British Politics as a large population of the United kingdom, still rely on these news mediums as a way to obtain political information.
In 2018 there is a small shift away from traditional media as we move towards a time of digitisation. Information is being made more regularly accessible and the conditions in which news is being produced have changed directions, and as a result news is becoming more selective. The government has recently acted upon the rising influence of new media outlets after discovering just how beneficial it can be to their campaigns. During the 2017 General election there was a significant push towards ‘digital politics’, the competing parties took to social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to promote their manifestos. The spreading of politics to new media outlets has caused more political participation form those who wouldn’t normally participate and it has been evident in younger people more than any other group. This is slowly prying away at the role of traditional media in politics as it is becoming more inclusive.
There are other politically influential factors such as, peers at work or someones social class these also help someone decide on which way they steer their vote. Another non media influence that is still used to this day is where people who represent the political parties campaigning trying to recruit the public by knocking on doors and posting leaflets through the door as a way to steer a vote in their favour, they will also post advertisements on billboards and posters, these each to their own have their own political pull and impact on British politics.
In conclusion traditional media is a significantly important role in British politics as it is the most politically influential medium with the largest amount of consumers and after looking back it is historically the most impactful influence, and with the government and the media themselves also noticing that media has such a large pull politically just goes to show that it is still significant, however its reign is being challenged by the use of social media. In the near future we can see social media overtaking the traditional media as in terms of political importance in Britain even though the traditional media forms are still in large circulation everything is moving to an online format and news is being produced an accelerating rate so it will eventually get to a where the government will drop the focus on traditional campaigning methods.