media influence in politics

Following the closing of the labour party conference yesterday, the sun overnight has printed a front page headline, saying they are backing the tories and that labour will as a result lose the election next year.

they have in two previous elections got their decision right, both with john major and blair in 1997, but does this necessarily mean they are right?

do you think the media is right to use its pages to promote a particular political party? do you think the media plays a valuable/invaluable part in establishing political support? or do you think they should simply report it as it is, and be impartial to the wole process-simply holding those in office to account for failings ect...?

personally i feel that the media have a scary grip on the system and that if they can alter the elections by the printed word, they are too powerful.

The Sun newspaper has tremendous sway on public opinion..however, in my view, the paper itself is also fully entitled to publish it's own opinion..I respect the public display of altered allegence.

I think newspapers are able to sway public opinion and have a lot of power. I personally don't buy a daily paper but check out the news on line or on TV

but surely if a tabloid newspaper can sway an election, it means that the newspaper is more in touch and is more in tune with public opinion, so does this mean that our politicians are ignorant to the public view, or just not interested in it?

I don't think the sun reflects the view of the british public, but, yes, I agree, they can sway opinion

I think most politicians are not in touch with the public and yes newspapers probably are more in tune with public opinion. There are lots of issues that the public feel strongly about and the newspapers seem to reflect this.

but then again the newspapers are driven by profit and sales.

i just think it is alarminfg how a media outlet can dictate an agenda, which they belive is the populist view, and then select a party to deliver.

so the tories are now expected to deliver on the views of the suns readership? so why bother having a manifesto or policies?

and if the tories win, fail and are ousted at the next election, will people shun and change their reading material in the same way as they switch voting patterns?

is anyone on these pages swayed by newspapers political stances, or are you capable of digesting real political matter, and making your own informed choices?

I think most people are capable of making up their own minds, unless they are too young to have formed their own opinions. Few things will change the party someone supports once they have made their mind up about it.

Ultimately, the media simply tries to represent what its cutomers think, otherwise they wouldn't buy their papers. As much as I think tabloids are worth less than bog roll, I don't believe the state should control the media to any extent. We need a free media to catch the government out when it f***s up. If the Sun and other s***ty tabloids are an unfortunate side-effect of that, it's still worth it.

The Sun is a tabloid for people who do not want to make up their own mind.

Although i would think most of the sun readers would be too busy debating the Katie/ Peter divorce or what Posh was thinking when she wore that dress or the latest footballers roasting session with a 15 year old wannabe WAG to bother actually walking to a polling booth and voting.

Besides, most people just vote for who their parents vote for. Do parents have too much power over electoral results? Should the government control them, too?

Nazi-lite's complaining about propaganda.

Nazi-lite's complaining about propaganda.




wow, didn't see that coming.