Discuss the View That the Mass Media Is the Most Important Factor Influencing the Way People Vote.

662 Words3 Pages
Newspapers have shown to be a huge influence in the run up to general elections. In 1992, The Sun newspaper backed the Conservative Party who went on to win that General Election. An article which is still talked about today was one which appeared on the front page of the paper reading ‘If Kinnock (the, then, Labour leader) wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights’. This headline alone suggested a huge backing for the Conservative Party. ‘The Sun wot won it’ is a notorious headline that appeared in the newspaper just after the results of the election. This headline shows a huge media influence which even the media agreed with. In the 1997 general election the Sun opted for Tony Blair’s Labour party who went on to win the election. More recently, in 2010, The Sun backed the Conservatives who won the general election, but with no enough votes to form a government on their own. This shows obvious links between newspapers and the electorate. Many people may not fully understand the voting system and what, exactly, different Political Parties represent which may force their vote to follow what the media influences. There is also a realisation that Prime Ministers may fear the media due to these statistics. TV and radio is seen as impartial which means a large area of media is limited. All party leaders have complained to the BBC at some point which suggests it is impartial. Many people believe TV is more important than newspapers because much less papers are bought at present days as opposed to times before Internet and Television. Also many people simply do not buy newspapers because the information can be accessed online elsewhere for free. However with newspaper companies still wanting to make money from their internet pages, many, such as the Sun have a subscription fee. This leads many people to opt for different websites such as
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