A Level Politics Audio Notes

The Print media

Traditionally, newspapers were the most important and powerful method of political persuasion, and their political alignment can clearly be seen today, with the Sun and Telegraph favouring the Conservatives, and the Guardian and Daily Mirror favouring Labour. While physical newspapers are declining in readership, views to websites like the Telegraph, the Sun and the Daily Mirror is very high. In October 2021, The Sun had 28.4 million readers.

Broadcast media

More recently, broadcast media has become popular, with the first election debate held on TV in 2010. There are many broadcasters for political information in the UK:

• BBC (BBC One, BBC News, etc)
• ITV (ITV1, ITV News, etc)
• Global (LBC, Capital, etc)
• Independent outlets (GB News, TalkTV, etc).

Broadcast media in the UK must remain politically impartial, and instead inform the public of political facts.

The BBC are funded using a license fee, dating back to 1923

• The standard TV licence now costs £159 a year and pays for the BBC’s TV, radio and online operations
• There are 25.7m TV licenses in the UK, according to the most recent figures – a slight drop on the previous year, despite the population continuing to increase.
• Non-payment of the TV licence by someone who watches live TV or uses the catch-up BBC iPlayer service is a criminal offence. TV Licensing, the arm of the BBC that enforces the charge, estimates that around 6% of British households watch TV without a valid licence.

Social media

The most important media stream which has rising in prominence during the 21^st century is social media: politicians actively engage with the public through platforms like Twitter and Instagram. This was clearly seen during the 2017 and 2019 elections, with a range of memes, slogans and videos appearing for both Labour and the Conservatives. However, this platform has allowed for ‘fake news’ to become more prominent, with many incorrect and biased facts making their way to mainstream social media.

Voters also engage on social media. Discussions on Twitter with people giving their viewpoint on a particular issue are common. However, there is a worry about consuming political information on social media regarding ‘echo-chambers’, which are environments created when someone surrounds themselves with agreeing voices. Some recognise that because of this phenomenon, social media may not accurately reflect the views of the general public.