The Role of Mass Media in the World of Politics

The mass media plays a very important char manageer reference in everyday demeanor. It is often the only form of education which is available to some, and as such has a very powerful influence oer peoples beliefs and opinions. This influence is never more discernible than when analysing the relationship between the media and governance. Politics freighter justifiably be described as THE main determine factor in our lives, the major influence over many facets of day to day living, such as finances, healthcare and employment.The media is the major source of information active governmental affairs, and as such has control over what we actually know about the semipolitical system and what we may never find out. As a result of this, it becomes inevitable that the media has a certain hold over the political arena. The media can judge, approve and criticise. It can make or break political careers, even parties, and the information which the media provides helps the public to form attitudes, responses and opinions towards political events and actors. gum olibanum it becomes very important for the political parties to keep the media on-side.It is obvious that the media does fill some impact on politics, just the main question should be to what extent, how does it manifest itself and why should we care anyway? For the purpose of this essay the media will be described as the hug, TV and radio. On the face of it the media is thither simply to communicate, or act as a transmitter of information between the political world and the consumer. However, probably since the end of the certify world war, it has become clear that the media can often conduct a hidden agenda when inform politics.Indeed, one of the most contentious issues over the last few years, at least since I have been consuming media products, has been the debate over media ownership. This has been particularly evident in the press, the most notable case beingness the Rupert Murdoch empire News International. I will start off by discussing the case of the press, as I commit that this is traditionally where much of the impact on politics has occurred, although I will discuss deeplyr how this may be changing.One major area of concern about press reporting of politics is the evident dumbing down of the coverage, even amongst the broadsheets, and the effect that this may have on politics. In 1993 Labour MP, and current legal residence Secretary, Jack Straw published a short research report into the press coverage of parliament, ( Negrine, 1998,p1). In doing the report he discovered how Parliamentary issues were now covered to a much lesser form than in the past, going from between 400-800 lines per day in The Times in 1988, to fewer than 100 lines in 1992.This seemed to show that the broadsheets were following the tabloid example of dumbing down. This has led to the worry that the press is trivialising the political process in the UK. Politics is becoming increasingly sp irit led, rather than policy led. An event may have political significance or importance, but it will only originally be seen as such if the press frames it in a way that makes it interesting and palatable to the reader. It therefore becomes a fact of political life that personalities are more interesting to the majority of the public than policies.This has inevitably led to a change in the political landscape, initiated and perpetuated by the media. There are now several key features to politics in the late twentieth century which were not there before. Political marketing, the use of negative campaigning and the mental home of spin doctors have all led to fear of an Americanisation of the political process. As well as the press, TV has played a major role in ushering in the age of the soundbite. The media has opened up a larger, more accessible audience to the politicians, which many of them find hard to resist.Institutions such as the House of greenness are becoming less and l ess a way of relaying policy issues and raising concerns, as the political arena is increasingly acted out in the media. Which publicity seeking politician, trying to gain support for their party, would remove the Commons over a highly publicised TV programme such as head word Time, or a high circulation newspaper such as The Sun. There has also been a blood in local party politics, as political communication has become more and more a national rather than local event.The American way of leader based, rather than party based politics has become a reality. This has been evident in the way that Tony Blair has become a media star, never more so than when his wife recently became pregnant. The celebrity image of the Prime minister of religion has also led to accusations that he lacks real political substance. Some would say another example of the trivialising of politics has been the introduction of TV cameras into the House of Commons. When it was offset proposed in 1966 it was he avily defeated on the grounds that TV cameras would ruin the unique and intimate gentle wind of the house.In 1989 the house first appeared on television. Strict guidelines were issued over what could be shown, including the use of head and berm shots only and the banning of reaction shots. There was great unease amongst the sitting MPs, including the then Prime Minister Mrs Thatcher, who said at the time .. if you are not careful you can freeze with TV there. it is going to be a different House of Commons, but that is that, (Politics UK, 1991, p208). There was a gradual thaw of hostile opinion towards the TV cameras, with some exceptions.David Amess, MP, protested that the cameras had managed to, .. trivialise our proceedings and spoil that very special melodic line that we had here, ( Politics UK, p208). The main political parties now recognise the crucial role the media has to play in their success and have reacted accordingly. Political strategies now incorporate media strate gies. They try to finagle the media in order to pass water a favourable image of themselves. In order to achieve this we have seen the introduction of professional media managers.The media henpecked world of politics now needs professional management. Peter Mandelson and Alistair Campbell are two such media experts. They have been partly responsible for transforming the Labour Party from being unelectable to gaining a runaway victory in the 1997 ordinary alternative. Indeed it has been said that Tony Blair spends more time in meetings with his image and media advisors than he spends discussing policies with his cabinet, which may be a worrying trend for UK politics. There are several ways that these people can attempt to manipulate the media.One such way, many would say to the detriment of the democratic process, is the manufacture of debates which are stage managed to stop a friendly audience and the communication of well rehearsed answers. There is also a great direct of emph asis placed on image management, and specifically the image of the party leader. This is very evident when face at the current leaders of the two main parties in the UK today. Despite the best attempts of Conservative rally office to jazz up the image of William Hague, he still retains the image of a dull, almost ill-chosen twit.On the other hand Tony Blair has the image of a dynamic, if slightly shallow, leader. This tends to ignore the fact that Hague is possibly a more intelligent and thoughtful politician than Blair. Another good example of this is the differences between Ronald Reagan and Michael Foot. Reagan was a outstandingly unskilled politician, but, being a trained actor, he was very good at conveying what was essentially a simple message. Foot, on the other hand, was a very skilled politician and public speaker.However, his uncombed appearance was not at all media friendly, and after defeat in the 83 general election he was cast aside in favour of a more media frie ndly Neil Kinnock. Reagan had two undefeated terms as US President. Many fear that this indicates a move away from real political issues towards a fickle political world where image is everything and political substance nothing. It is clear that a personality clash or a sex scandal can now be more minus to a political party than an actual policy disagreement.But should we be very concerned about this, and exactly how much of the shifting political tide is down to the media. Some observers point to the fact that plain, modest politicians such as John Major and George Bush have enjoyed immensely successful political careers. This may suggest that the public can only be fooled to a certain degree by glib media management, and may eventually get sick of being force fed so called perfect politicians, with teensy or no political ability.