Loughborough University's Centre for Research in Communication and Culture have conducted Reports that break down the media's attitude towards all major politicians and parties who are hoping to win tomorrow's U.K. Election. The Reports are titled "Media Analysis of the 2017 General Election campaign" and it allows us to see if the major nighttime news shows and newspapers are really as neutral as they want us to think they are. The news programmes include: Channel 4 News at 7pm, Channel 5 News at 6:30pm, BBC1 News at 10, ITV1 News at 10 and Sky News at 8. The Newspapers include: The Guardian, Independent, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Financial Times, The Daily Mail, The Daily Express, The Mirror, The Sun and The Star.
In this piece we will be looking at Reports 2 and 3 - as these are the reports that matter the most because of how they can influence peoples vote close to an election. Report 2 is dated from the 5th of May to the 17th of May and shows us the results of the analysis of positive to negative news items by political party.
Report 2 saw a majority of the TV airtime and newspaper print space given to the two major parties - Conservatives and Labour. 71 percent of all TV appearances featured these two parties, as well as 85 percent of press coverage at the time the report was written. Smaller parties such as: The Liberal Democrats, UKIP, SNP and the Green Party have all received far less media time than the two major political heavyweights. However, while Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn had 27.7% of coverage and other Labour leaders had their share of coverage increased, a vast majority of the coverage has been negative. Corbyn had the majority of the press because of the launch of his manifesto and of course papers such as the Sun, Daily Mail and Express had to lecture us on how terrible it is to be left wing.
Figure 3.2 shows us how much negative media attention Labour have had to deal with from 5th-17th of May, having to deal with a score of over -120 of negative attention, and over -100 of negative attention when weighted by newspaper circulation. Using the figures that aren't weighted by newspaper circulation, the SNP were the only political party to receive more positive than negative media attention, with all other parties having received negative views to varying degrees. With papers such as the Daily Mail and their constant over inflation of the effects of immigration on the U.K., it is no surprise that newspapers like these, become defensive whenever another party offers a better alternative to EU-bashing and repetition of "strong and stable leadership".
Figure 3.3 shows which newspapers have delivered positive or negative attention to each party as a whole. You'd be mistaken for thinking the Labour party are campaigning on policies such as "dementia tax", NHS Privatisation, increasing Social Care costs and not being 100% truthful when it comes to a potential income tax rise - this from the 'low tax party' who constantly fear monger about Corbyn raising Corporation Tax to 26% (still the smallest in the G7.) However it is exactly the opposite, Labour are campaigning on restoring the NHS to what made it the United Kingdom's proudest achievement, allowing parents with children ages 2-4 access to 30 hours a week of free childcare - allowing them to enter the workforce without spending a chunk of their income on babysitters - and bringing railways back into the public sector, which will allow more of the money train companies raise go back into the service itself as there is no longer a need to deliver profit motive to already-rich CEO's and the U.K. Government currently give the rail industry £4.8 Billion in grants, also, the rationalisation policy will cost nothing as track and station owner Network Rail is already state-owned, and for the train franchises, the state could just take over when the franchises lapse. Oh, and economists Jonathan Portes and Tony Yates have said it wouldn't add anything to the national debt - but the right-wing press don't want you to know that - hence the vast amounts of negative press for a seemingly normal policy.
Report 3, which covers TV and newspaper coverage from 18th-31st of May, these trends continued. However this Report 3 states that Theresa May received 36.3% of coverage compared to Jeremy Corbyn's 17.7%, allowing the prime minister to make her message more far-reaching than the other candidates. However, it should be noted that the majority the Conservatives coverage was from the Manifesto launch and the subsequent fall out of the policies and not having costed it (they still haven't costed their manifesto and the election is tomorrow).
Both the Conservatives and Labour received a slew of negative attention in the papers, however when weighted by newspaper circulation, Labour by far and away have received the most negative consideration, but less than in Report 2. A major point that the report found was that the larger U.K. newspapers are less critical of the Conservative party than any other political party or senior figures within those parties, compared to smaller, more obscure newspapers.
When you have people like Rupert Murdoch, owner of The Sun and The Times, Paul Dacre, Daily Mail editor - who Theresa May held a private dinner for - and Arron Banks and Richard Desmond, Banks has donated to far-right UKIP (ex-conservative donor) and Daily Express owner Desmond, also a donor to UKIP. It really isn't hard to see why an actual left-wing politician like Jeremy Corbyn is getting the "Corbyn the Communist" treatment from papers such as these, it is because they have their best interests to protect, and they know that a politician who would clamp down on them - be it for daring to question ultra-rich tax dodging or calling them out on their hateful vitriol that they spew - Corbyn is not a danger to the country, he's a danger to people with agendas such as these guys, who literally care about profit over people.
As comedian George Carlin so eloquently stated: "It's a big club, and you ain't in it."
SOURCES: Report 2 - Media Election Analysis
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