Page 201 - An Introduction to Political Communication Third Edition

COMMUNICATING POLITICS

became the dominant reading. Greenpeace became, in this story at
least, the primary definers of reality.

Gay liberation
Another pressure group to achieve gains through media cam-
paigning in the 1990s was the gay rights movement. In Britain, a
variety of more or less polite demonstrations secured such long
overdue advances as the lowering of the homosexual age of consent
to sixteen in June 1998 and the repeal of the infamous Section 28.
(Introduced by the Thatcher government in the 1980s, this
legislation prohibited local government from spending money on
the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality, including simple information
and education for young people about what homosexuality was and
why it was not an evil force.) Although the movement was divided
between those, led by such as Peter Tatchell, whose tactics included
the staging of aggressive demonstrations of ‘outing’ and pulpit-
storming to secure media coverage and others, led by such as Sir Ian
McKellen, who preferred quiet lobbying of politicians and media, in
the end a combination of both approaches achieved a real shift in
public perceptions of gayness which, if it was less than some
activists wanted, was more than would have been achieved without
skilful use of the media as a platform for articulation of the gay
rights case.

Fuel and other protests
November 2000 saw a new kind of pressure group activity in
Britain, when a coalition of lorry drivers and agricultural workers
began to blockade petrol stations and refineries in protest at the
high cost of fuel. As the protest grew, and with it media coverage
alerting Britain’s drivers to the growing problem, shortages of
petrol quickly developed and Britain’s roads emptied. For a few
days the serious possibility of Britain running out of petrol was in
the air. In the end the protests came to an end, but not before the
government was obliged to make major concessions on the future
price of petrol. Again, the media had been used as a potent channel
for the dissemination of political messages. Similar tactics of non-
violent disruption were used by the Countryside Alliance – a broad-
based lobby group working to effect government policy on rural
issues such as hunting and agricultural subsidies. Among their
tactics were the blocking of busy motorways with slow moving

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