Page 76 - An Introduction to Political Communication Fifth Edition

Intro to Politics Communication (5th edn)-p.qxp 9/2/11 10:55 Page 55

THE POLITICAL MEDIA
Conservatives. During the election campaign, when it came in April and May
2010, the traditional pattern of pro-Tory bias in the British press was
restored. Even the left-of-centre Guardian advocated support for the Liberal
Democrats rather than Labour.
That the overwhelming majority of the British press have, with the
exception of the New Labour era, consistently supported the party of big
business is not seriously in dispute. Still in dispute, however, is the impact
which media coverage has on political behaviour. Harrop and Scammell
state that ‘the Conservative tabloids generally, and the Sun in particular,
did a good propaganda job for the party in the last crucial week of the
[1992] campaign’ (1992, p. 180). They point out, however, that the pro-
Tory bias in 1992 was no less extreme than in 1987 or 1983, when the
Labour Party did considerably worse at the polls. These observers doubt
that the press had a decisive impact on the campaign, which was won by
the Conservatives on an unexpected (and largely undetected by opinion
polls) ‘late swing’. On the other hand, the tabloids’ relentless and vicious
campaign of personal and political abuse of Labour leaders and their
policies, exemplified by the Sun’s ‘Nightmare on Kinnock Street’ headline,
was accredited with the Conservative’s victory by leading member Lord
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McAlpine. The Sun, indeed, congratulated itself and its readers after
polling day on a job well done.
Political analyst Bill Miller has suggested that late swings to the Tories in
1987 were most apparent among working-class Sun readers of the type who
reside in marginal seats such as Basildon. Here in 1992, where Sun readers
are said to be found in their greatest numbers, the swing to the Tories was
the largest in the country. Miller notes of the 1987 election that working-
class readers of the Tory-supporting tabloids shifted in larger numbers to the
Conservatives than other groups of voters (1991). Twenty-five general
elections later convincing evidence of the impact of the press on voting
behaviour was still not available. It is not clear, for example, if Labour’s
strong votes in the general elections of 1997 and 2001 were a consequence
of press support and the impact of that on voters’ intentions, or if press
support for Labour was a consequence of proprietors’ perceptions that the
political environment in Britain had changed – that the Tory era was over, at
least for the present, and that readers wanted their newspapers to reflect this
shift in their editorial allegiances. In short, did the press follow the people,
or the people follow the press in 1997 and subsequent elections?
If this question cannot be conclusively answered, subsequent campaigns
did lend support to former journalist and Labour MP Martin Linton’s claim
that it is impossible for any party to win a British general election without a
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majority of the press (as measured in share of circulation) behind it. In
1992, with only 27 per cent of circulation in its support, Labour lost. In
1997, 2001 and 2005, with considerably more than 50 per cent, it won. In
2010, with very little press support, it lost again. This fact does not resolve

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