Politics of the Media

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Politics of the Media

ywfoo@lincoln.ac.uk

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Growing Up• Political Socialization; how we

acquire attitudes towards politics

• Family• Peers• Religion

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Education• Like the family, education is

hierarchical in structure• As an obvious source of

social control, the state watches over the school system with vigilance

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Advertising• Although most of our

advertisements promote a product, they generally subscribe to the ethos of free-market capitalism

• Political parties are now investing enormous funds to sell themselves to voters

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The Press• 13 million newspapers a week• Broadsheets• Tabloids• Serious weeklies• Major newspapers are

national, providing uniformity of view and centre on London

• Provincial dailies are in decline

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Partisanship• Freedom of the press is held

to be a major characteristic of the liberal state

• Newspaper industry is part of ‘big business’

• Only in times of crisis does the state overtly demand that the press become its instrument

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Partisanship• Our newspapers have a

strong political bias• Traditionally they have

favoured the Conservative Party and the right of the Labour Party

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Profit• Maximise profit• Appeal to mass readership

ensures stories featuring sensationalism, trivialisation

• Racism• Jingoism (chauvinistic militarism)• Celebrity stories• Tabloid coverage focuses on

immediate events rather than background analysis

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Press Barons• The Press, a neo-liberal

Establishment• Press Barons regularly

recognised by elevation to the peerage

• Newspaper owners exercise editorial control

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Journalists• Usually from middle and

upper-middle class backgrounds

• Good journalists will get to know leading figures in business and politics

• Few journalists would be willing to ‘bite the hands’ of those who can give them information

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Television• We watch 21 hours of

television each week• Television has become the

organ of a truly mass culture and is the principal means of informing perceptions of the political world

• Power of television is recognised both by politicians and the advertising industry

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Regulatory Bodies • British Broadcasting

Corporation (BBC)• Independent Television

Commission (ITC)• Class bias in news

programmes• Points of view tend to fit

within a consensus acceptable to the Establishment

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Political Interference• Both the BBC and ITC boards

of governors are appointed by the government

• Each board delegates day to day operations to a Director General

• Some journalists aim for a more robust style, but they can come under attack

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Media/Internet Today we are looking at two

competing forces in the evolution of a new society; neo-liberal globalization, and an information technology revolution

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On-line • In mid-February, 2003,

millions of people marched in cities across the world in protest of the war in Iraq

• A stunning example of what networked global civil society is capable of: online organizing leading to massive offline direct action

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Seminar • Look up information about

Press Baron Rupert Murdoch• Discuss Murdoch’s upbringing

and his political values• How do you think Murdoch

has influenced the outcome of elections in Great Britain

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Press Baron Profile• Rupert Murdoch, Born 1931• Known to have conservative

views, but strong supporter of Tony Blair – “Who Blairs Win”

• Pomotes a free enterprise culture

• Disapproves of Britain joining the euro