8/9/2019 Effect of the Media on Voting 2010

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Effect of the Media on Voting.

Newspaper endorsements

Main article: Newspaper endorsements in the United Kingdom general election, 2010

National newspapers in the United Kingdom traditionally endorse political partiesbefore a general election. The following table shows which parties major papers areendorsing (or blank if they have not declared a preference).

Dailies

Sundays

Newspaper Endorsement Newspaper Endorsement

Daily Express Conservative[81] Sunday Express Conservative[82]

The Guardian

Liberal

Democrat[83] The Observer

Liberal

Democrat[84]Daily Mail Conservative[82] The Mail on Sunday Conservative[85]

Daily Mirror Labour[82] Sunday Mirror Labour[82]

The People Coalition[82]

The Sun Conservative[86] News of the World Conservative[87]

The DailyTelegraph

Conservative[88] The Sunday Telegraph Conservative[82]

The Times Conservative[89] The Sunday Times Conservative[90]

The IndependentThe Independent onSunday

Evening Standard Conservative[91]Financial Times Conservative[92]

The Independentand The Guardian advocated tactical voting to maximise thechance of a Liberal Democrat Labour coalition, in order to make electoral reform apossibility.[83][93]

Extracts from the Guardian discussing the election campaign:

This was supposed to be the election where Clegg broke the mould of British politics,

thanks to his exposure in the three televised debates. The newspapers' power toinfluence public opinion, it seemed, was also broken. Though the rightwing papersattempted a full-scale character assassination on Clegg after the first debate, theyhad no apparent effect. He continued to ride high in opinion polls... [but] a week afterthe final televised debate, the electorate voted his party into fewer seats than it wonin 2005. Perhaps there's life in the mangy old newspaper dogs yet.

In another respect, however, they failed. In the final days of the campaign havingapparently given up on its attempts to convince the public that Clegg was a lying,cheating, greedy, anti-British bounder of dubious foreign origins the rightwingpapers barked about the perils of a hung parliament................

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_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-90%23cite_note-90http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-90%23cite_note-90http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Independenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Independent_on_Sundayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Independent_on_Sundayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evening_Standardhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-91%23cite_note-91http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-91%23cite_note-91http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Timeshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-FT-endorse-92%23cite_note-FT-endorse-92http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-FT-endorse-92%23cite_note-FT-endorse-92http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardianhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_votinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_reformhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-guardian-endorse-83%23cite_note-guardian-endorse-83http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-93%23cite_note-93http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/newspapershttp://www.guardian.co.uk/media/newspapershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Expresshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-81%23cite_note-81http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_Expresshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-BBCnb-82%23cite_note-BBCnb-82http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardianhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Democratshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Democratshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-guardian-endorse-83%23cite_note-guardian-endorse-83http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Observerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Democratshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Democratshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-84%23cite_note-84http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Mailhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-BBCnb-82%23cite_note-BBCnb-82http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mail_on_Sundayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-85%23cite_note-85http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Mirrorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-BBCnb-82%23cite_note-BBCnb-82http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday_Mirrorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-BBCnb-82%23cite_note-BBCnb-82http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peoplehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-BBCnb-82%23cite_note-BBCnb-82http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sun_(newspaper)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-86%23cite_note-86http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_of_the_Worldhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-87%23cite_note-87http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Telegraphhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Telegraphhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-88%23cite_note-88http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sunday_Telegraphhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-BBCnb-82%23cite_note-BBCnb-82http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Timeshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-89%23cite_note-89http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sunday_Timeshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-90%23cite_note-90http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Independenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Independent_on_Sundayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Independent_on_Sundayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evening_Standardhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-91%23cite_note-91http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Timeshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-FT-endorse-92%23cite_note-FT-endorse-92http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardianhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_votinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_reformhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-guardian-endorse-83%23cite_note-guardian-endorse-83http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010#cite_note-93%23cite_note-93http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/newspapershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaper_endorsements_in_the_United_Kingdom_general_election,_2010

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But in a brilliant example of its scaremongering traditions, during the riots thatcaused three deaths. (Or so the caption said: it could have been any police officer ofany gender engulfed in any old flames anywhere.) Above the picture, the bold, blackheadline announced: "Burning issue for Britain". Our deficit was "about to becomeworse than Greece's" and the "blood and anarchy" in Athens were "an election

wake-up call for Britain". Inside, over two spreads, the Mail a paper that normallyconcerns itself with the fringes of Europe only when inebriated and nubile Britishtourists shed their knickers continued to highlight Greece, but also continued toremind readers of its relevance to Britain. "Look what Mr Clegg's beloved PR votingsystem did for Greece," warned Mark Almond, the Oxford historian.

The cognoscenti's verdict on the campaign was that, since voters could now directlycompare the party leaders for 270 minutes on TV, catching every nuance in theirvoices, watching every twitch of their facial muscles, press power would drain away.Its partisanship, many judged, would look increasingly irrelevant against the calm,controlled format and inbuilt balance of the TV debates. But the newspapers weren't

listening. Most ended the campaign more partisan, more hysterical, less balancedthan ever. And after what happened to Clegg, who can say they were wrong?

For full article go to: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/10/general-election-power-of-press

Further Examples:

Alastair Campbell (Labour's chief spin doctor) claimed Tory leader David Cameron

had been given an 'easy ride' by newspapers and broadcasters. This suggests hebelieves in the power and influence of the media.This was part of a well-documented bust-up between him and Mr Boulton (the skynews presenter) who Alastair Campbell had accused of being pro-Tory. Details ofwhich can be found on the BBC news webpages.

Gordon Brown is his leaving speech at Labour Party HQ referred to the "what i willcall a difficult media environment", which shows he believed the media does have aninfluence.However, he also said that it was "my fault alone" that Labour had lost and hepointed out that Labour's success in the election meant that the Conservatives had

not been able to form a majority government. Considering the way the majority ofnewspapers were baying for blood (an example above) does this suggest they arenot as effective?

Nick Robinson (the BBC's chief political correspondent is supposed to be impartialand prevent an unbiased viewpoint. He was clearly pro-Conservative throughout theelection campaign and if people expect unbiased coverage on the BBC what effectwould this have? Further, do people actually know BBC coverage is supposed to beunbiased?

These are just some examples, there are many more which you should share

amongst yourselves.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/10/general-election-power-of-presshttp://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/10/general-election-power-of-presshttp://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/10/general-election-power-of-presshttp://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/may/10/general-election-power-of-press