How the media affects voting behaviour

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  • Influence of the media
    • Agenda Setting theory
      • suggests that the media-especially newspapers- can force certain issues onto the political agenda (ie make parties discuss them and give views on them) by having prominent stories or campaigns about them.
      • In 2009 The Telgrapth set the agenda by realising information on the expenses scandal
    • Rules
      • Newspapers have loose restrictions and are allowed to be partisan. They must offer a retraction if they have printed something false
      • TV stations must be impartial and give equal weight to each party and are monitored by Ofcom
      • Twitter have banned political advertising and Facebook have began deleting posts for misinformation and also changed their algorithm so you are less likely to see posts from politics and media.
    • Importance
      • Newspapers used to be important and are still important in agenda setting however due to less people reading them they have become less important. With the rise of 24/7 News and social media newspapers have become less important with only 1/3 using it.
      • Average person watches 23 hours of TV a week and 51% of adults see TV news as there main source of news.
      • 23% said debates changed their minds in 2010 with the LIb Dems immidiatly topping the polls after the debate.
      • However 67% said that Party Political Broadcasts had no impact on their decision despite being extremly expensive to make.
      • Social media is becoming more important with the Tories in 2015 and Leave campaign able to use social media advertising to target swing voters. Labours organic content that was key to them producing a hung parliament.
    • Dominant ideology theory
      • suggests that voters take their political information from a newspaper, and as such the newspapers have a direct effect on the political views of the voters.
      • "It's The Sun wot won it" - 1992 General Election Major vs Kinnock. Sun had a readership of 3.5 million at the time the largest in the UK
      • In 1997 Blair recognised the power of Newspapers and went to meet Murdoch to get the Sun's backing and Labour went on to win a massive majority.
    • Reinforcement theory
      • People choose media that reinforces their views rather than challenges them.
      • 79% of the Telegraph readers voted Tory in 2017 and they have always endorsed the Conservative Party in
        • Dominant ideology theory
          • suggests that voters take their political information from a newspaper, and as such the newspapers have a direct effect on the political views of the voters.
          • "It's The Sun wot won it" - 1992 General Election Major vs Kinnock. Sun had a readership of 3.5 million at the time the largest in the UK
          • In 1997 Blair recognised the power of Newspapers and went to meet Murdoch to get the Sun's backing and Labour went on to win a massive majority.
    • Cognitive Dissonance
      • Mental stress felt by being confronted with information that opposes a persons existing beliefs.
      • Selective Absorption
        • Only remebering what fits with a persons belief.
      • Selective Perception
        • Interpreting facts in a way that fits in your belief
      • Selective Exposure

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