Harmful Influence of the Media on British Politics - Essay Example

Do We Overplay the Influence - Especially the Harmful Influence - Of the Media on British Politics? Table of Contents Table of Contents Introduction 3 Discussion 4 Influences of Media on the British Politics 6 Harmful Influences of Media on British Political System 7 Critical Understanding 8 Findings 9 Conclusion 11 References 12 Introduction Over the last century, British newspaper and media have been playing a crucial role on the political context of the country. Over the last few decades, the British media has highlighted each and every public sphere in front of the citizens of the country. During the contemporary era the power of mass media has been enhanced in the British politics. According to the viewpoint of Hampton (2008), the capacity of mass media has enhanced during the present day era, which has affected the political leadership of the country. At the same time, newspaper and media has also influenced the political agenda of the British political parties in a diversified manner (Hampton, 2008). Hodgson (2007) claimed that since ‘World War II’ British media has played an influential role in the country in terms of political participation, elections and political process among others. Considering this fact, media and newspaper has undermined several aspects of the country in terms of voting, elections, political equality and accountability. As a consequence, the impact of the political activities in case of business sectors, has diversely affected the performance of the country. Moreover, it has also affected the financial stability of the country in context of political background. Additionally, during the early 21st century the traditional trend of media changed to a considerable extent and the presence of social media highly influenced the political performance in Britain (Hodgson, 2007). In this assignment, the objective is to identify that whether we overplay the influences of media on the British politics. At the same time, the study has also emphasised to identify the harmful influences of media and newspaper of the British political system. Discussion During the contemporary era, the role of mass media has changed, which has influenced potential problems on the democratic environment of the British government. More precisely, media and newspaper has identified all the agenda from the domestic environment of the British and framed the same in front of Britain citizens. In this regard, mass media have a high influence on the macro political agenda, which has initiated difficulties for the political parties in Britain. According to the viewpoint of Tulloch (2007) British political system is usually established on the basis of democratic governance. In this context, it is evident that constitutional issues and governmental elections are usually the core agenda’s of the British political system. On the other hand, a large number of the British citizens are often eager gain knowledge about the political issues of the country. Moreover, it reflects that most of the citizens are relying on the mass media with the aim of understanding the political background of the domestic country. As a consequence, newspapers and media has become the most reliable source of information for the British citizens (Tulloch, 2007). Most of the media and newspapers particularly provide higher attention towards the political aspects of the country in terms of trade relation with the foreign country, sports and celebrity related news among others. On the other hand, these newspapers also pay high amount of attention on the political participation and political movements of the country. Luckhurst (2012) thus claimed that after ‘World War II’ the British media has influenced the political occurrences of the country in a massive manner. Contextually, it was recognised that the ability of mass media was very high during the latter part of the 21st century. According to the review of literature, it is perceived that large numbers of the British readers are highly influenced and create their perception regarding the political context of the county according to the viewpoint of the mass media. As an effect, being a democratic country most of the citizens have a bias viewpoint regarding the political aspects of the country (Luckhurst, 2012). Additionally, as a consequence several British citizens were losing their interest towards the political context of the country. As an effect, a large population have kept themselves away from the election related campaign due to the effect of mass media. At the same time, British citizens have started losing their faith on the political leaders of the country. Therefore, voters’ preferences have also reduced among the citizens of Britain. In this regard, it is identified that the potential causes behind such reactions is due to the influence of the mass media. Mass media and newspaper has influenced the political trend of Britain and it has also affected the number of voters within the nation (Luckhurst, 2012; Tulloch, 2007). According to the viewpoint of the Dean (2013), during the early 21st century, the traditional trend of mass media changed in a massive manner. During the contemporary era, leaders have contributed their extensive effort towards the growth of the country, which has attracted the attention of the media to a considerable extent. Media has exposed the role of the political leaders towards the growth of Britain in the global context. Moreover, with the assistance of media it was recognised that the political leaders have contributed enormous effort towards the success of Britain, which has never been seen earlier. Consequently, British citizens increased their participation towards the political campaign and election related campaigns on the domestic area of the United Kingdom (Dean, 2013; Luckhurst, 2012). Influences of Media on the British Politics In order to highlight the influences of media on the British political system, it can be asserted that during the contemporary era, due the presence of social media the impact of the British political system has improved than earlier. According to the review of academic literature, it is depicted that impact of media is highly biased in case of political aspects. Media has the tendency of criticizing each and every aspects of the society. In this context, political factors are the most foremost issues, which can attract the attention of large number of citizens in a country. Contextually, larger population of Britain are employed and educated, which has assisted media to sustain their process through criticizing the political leaders. Mass media has taken bias approach during their practice. For an instance, British media has published incomplete view about leaders and also criticised the political agenda according to the demographic scenario of the country. Similarly, several political parties have lobbied with mass media with the aim of grabbing attention of the mass. However, it is notified that opposition parties have utilised media attention as a positive instrument for influencing the perception of the citizens for gathering votes. As an effect, most of Britain citizens have lost their faith and believe on the political leaders of the UK (Luckhurst, 2012; Tulloch, 2007). With the effect of globalisation, it has been identified that the cross-border business activities have increased around the entire world. Britain has also participated in a positive manner in the cross border business activities. At the same time, technological involvement has increased in Britain market, which has introduced a new trend of social media. The involvement of social media has created a better impact on the political aspects of the country. The social media has helped to mitigate the bias approaches towards the political leaders. Social media has exposed positive actions of the political leaders, which has enhanced the reputation of the political leaders in the global context. Apart from this, due to the presence of social media, the news transference system has become faster than earlier, which has directly and indirectly assisted political leaders to conduct their political or vote gaining campaigns in a more exposed manner. As a positive consequence, it is notified that due to social media the participation of British citizen has improved towards the political system and campaign (Luckhurst, 2012; Tulloch, 2007). Harmful Influences of Media on British Political System According to the academic viewpoint, it has recognized that the effect of modernization, economization and individualization has been highly involved with British political system. At the same time, political agenda are also interlinked with other aspects of the society such as culture, arts, and sports (Hodgson, 2007). Simultaneously, religious and economic aspects are also associated with the political manifesto of Britain. In this regard, media has played a crucial role with the intention of creating conflicts among the citizens regarding such attributes. In order to draw the attention of the mass of the country, British media utilized different personal information and behaviours of the political leaders. At the same time, due to the high involvement of media the political competition increased in case of industrialisation and official issues. In this regard, Bingham (2002) thus argued that lobbying approaches of media hampers the image of the opposition party. Bromley & Tumber (1997) thus claimed that several evidences have been perceived regarding such harmful influences of media, which is witnessed by the British political system (Bingham, 2002; Bromley & Tumber, 1997). According to the viewpoint of Curran & Seaton (2010), the impact of newspaper was very high during the year 1980s in case of political agenda. However, along with modernization it is depicted that the impact of television also has been increased after the year 1990s. In this context, Bromley & Tumber (1997) claimed that the influence of media on the British politics was highly depended on the political position of the political parties (government verses opposition parties political agenda). Similarly, Curran & Seaton (2010) claimed that in case of British political system it is identified that opposition political parties always tries to create a negative impact on the existing government parties through influencing negative news. In this case, mass media attacks the existing policies of the government parties with the aim of creating a negative impact in front of the British citizens. For an instance, Media has influenced such issues, where government has does not been able to fulfil the expectation of the British citizens due to the negative impact of the politicians or political leaders. Thus, Bromley & Tumber (1997) claimed that in order to identify the rationale behind such occurrences of mass media, it is notified that mass media tries to gain the attention of the British citizens (Curran & Seaton, 2010; Bromley & Tumber, 1997). Critical Understanding During the late 20th century, most of the media sources such as news and magazines published several vague and bias information related to the political leaders due to the lack of social media and advanced technology. However, during the modern era this unethical pattern has changed in an extensive manner, but somehow the effect has not demolished yet. Nowadays social media has changed the procedure of attracting the attention of the British citizens. In this context, due to high availability of social media platform, it has become quite difficult for the media to practices or claim unethical agenda (Hampton, 2008). According to the understanding, it can be affirmed that most of Britain citizen have cell phones or computers through which, media try to ensure its presence and popularity among the British citizens. Thus, during the political communications, media uses digital extension to attract the attention of the mass population at a time (Curran & Seaton, 2010; Bromley & Tumber, 1997). Therefore, the popularity of internet and YouTube has been raised in an extensive manner during the contemporary era with the population becoming more tech savvy. Moreover, most of the British political leaders are using mass media as an instrument for conducting political campaigns in a more extensive manner to reach the mass (Green-Pedersen and Stubager, 2010). Findings The British opposition parties took advantage of the media influence in order to attract the attention of the British citizens during the late nineties by criticizing the image of the governing party. In case of Denmark, Europe during the 1990s similar case was witnessed with regard to mass media. According to the understanding, political parties also have tried to attract the attention of mass media with an interest of generating attentiveness among citizens. In order to identify the factors, depending upon the British political system, it is notified that the impact of the political system is very high on the trade and commercial activities of a country. At the same time, democratic government manifestos are also interlinked with the political structure of the country. In this context, it can be argued that both the government and political system of Britain are highly interconnected with the economic condition of the country. If the democratic political environment of the country remains soundless then automatically the growth can be observed on the economic aspect of the country. Thus, in most of the cases opposition parties often depict the intention to draw the attention of mass media and highlight such issues, where the government has unable to deliver a ‘promised policy situation’ (Green-Pedersen and Stubager, 2010). Furthermore, the effect of mass media has highly influenced British society during the ‘post-war period’. The presence of social media has improved the attitude of political system during the modern era to an extent. Media coverage has changed the pattern of political campaigning activities in the UK during the early 21st century. Thus, it can be claimed that media has influenced the image of democratic political parties along with political leaders after the post-war period, which has affected the image of British politics. Based on the above study, it is also recognised that the tendency of partial or bias occurrences have reduced during the contemporary era due to the presence of social media, which is highly advanced. Observably, British political party uses social media for conducting political campaign with the intention of making the citizens aware of their political manifesto and in order to attain more votes from the local citizens (Luckhurst, 2012; Tulloch, 2007; Bingham, 2002). Conclusion Based on the above discussion, it is depicted that British mass media has shaped political image according to their intention. Most of the British press has applied biased approaches with the aim of attracting the attention of the mass populace. In this regard, the media has highlighted such political issues, where the democratic government has failed to fulfil the promised expectation of the British citizens. In this regard, it can be claimed that politics affairs has a high impact on the domestic citizens of a country. At the same time, politics affairs are also highly essential for a country, because it may influence the performance of economic growth of country. At the same time, it can also affect the life-style of the citizens. Thus, domestic citizens always have high attention towards the political affairs of the country. In this context, media has utilized its biased approach and incomplete information with the aim influencing the attention of large number of citizens. On the contrary, it is also recognised that opposition political parties are also tries to grab the attention of mass media with the aim of influencing the perception of the citizens. In this regard, it is also notified that media has applied several unethical approaches to diverse the attention of the British citizens and it order to ensure that media has applied unusual personal and sexual behaviours of the celebrities and political leaders, which has hampered the image of the British political agenda. Similarly, the impact of media can be witnessed in the domestic environment of the country such as culture, life-style and economical status of Britain. Additionally, it has also hampered democratic political situation of the country. References Bingham, A., 2002. Stop the Flapper Vote Folly: Lord Rothermere, the Daily Mail, and the Equalization of the Franchise 1927-28. Twentieth Century British History, Vol. 13, Iss. 1, pp. 17-37. Bromley, M., & Tumber, H., 1997. From Fleet Street to cyberspace: the British Popular Press. Communications, Vol. 22, Iss. 3, pp. 365-378. Curran, J., & Seaton, J., 2010. Power without Responsibility: the Press, Broadcasting and the Internet in Britain. Routledge. Dean, M., 2013. Democracy Under Attack: How the Media Distort Policy and Politics. Policy Press. Green-Pedersen, C., & Stubager, R., 2010. The Political Conditionality of Mass Media Influence: When Do Parties Follow Mass Media Attention? British Journal of Political Science, Vol. 40, pp. 663–677. Hampton, M., 2008. The Objectivity Ideal and its Limitations in 20th-century British Journalism. Journalism Studies, Vol. 9, Iss. 4, pp. 477-493. Hodgson, G., 2007. Sir Nevile Henderson, Appeasement and the Press: Fleet Street and the Build-up to the Second World War. Journalism Studies, Vol. 8, Iss. 2, pp. 320-334. Luckhurst, T., 2012. It Is Thrown Against Me That I Have A Castle: A Portrait Of Newspaper Coverage Of The Central Southwark By-Election, February 1940. Journalism Studies, Vol. 13, Iss. 1, pp. 107-123. Tulloch, J., 2007. Tabloid Citizenship: The Daily Mirror and the Invasions of Egypt (1956) and Iraq (2003). Journalism Studies, Vol. 8, Iss. 1, pp. 42-60. Read More