6.4.3 Media Organisations in Politics
Media organisations – newspapers and broadcasters – influence both the public and politicians; they can sometimes mislead them.
They have a wider reach than is available to individual members of the population. Some have the resources to do research into matters of public interest. They can report news and opinions through radio and television, in addition to print and the Internet. They can keep people informed and they influence opinions in democratic countries (whereas authoritarian countries might not allow criticisms of the government).
They can provide a useful channel for a two-way exchange of views between politicians and the people:
They can enable politicians to explain their policies, especially in economic matters and foreign affairs.
They can also provide a platform for people and interest groups to inform politicians of their opinions and requirements. Politicians need to hear criticism, to know what the population is thinking and to see how it is being influenced.
Commercial media companies have a range of motivations.
Some position themselves as trustworthy: they might strive for truthfulness; their reporting is attributable; they might care about their reputations; and they do not want to be sued.
Some employ professional journalists to express the owner’s opinions, and they can choose what is communicated on their platforms. Their reporting can be highly selective and opinionated.
Wealthy media owners have a personal interest in paying less tax, so they might promote political parties that offer to cut taxes.
Media organisations are losing people’s trust
This is partly because of repeated attacks by politicians, as pointed out by Helen Lewis in a New Statesman article headed How Britain’s political conversation turned toxic:
“There are good reasons for this poisonous tango between politicians and the media. The former are the least trusted profession in Britain, according to Ipsos Mori: just 17 per cent of us trust them to tell the truth. Journalists are not far ahead, on 27 per cent. The temptation is for each group to purchase credibility by attacking the other. The effect, though, is an overall loss of respect for democracy and its institutions.”
There is a similar picture across the Atlantic. In a leader entitled America Divided on 3 November 2018, The Economist reported that
“Just 11% of strong Trump supporters believe the mainstream media, whereas 91% of them trust Mr Trump, a CBS News poll found in the summer”.
How news media affect politics
This is explored in the following sub-sections:
● They are an essential component of democracy (6.4.3.1). They inform the population, influence people’s opinions on important issues, and affect politicians’ decision-making. Not all media are trustworthy, though.
● It is important who owns them (6.4.3.2). Media ownership is increasingly concentrated, which makes a few individuals very powerful. This argument also applies to Internet social media platforms, which can be regarded as commercial media organisations because they exert influence by choosing what people will see online.
● Their reporting sometimes distorts public debate (6.4.3.3). People may be unaware of media bias, for example, or that they are being given information which does not stand up to fact-checking. There are examples of tilting the output to please a target audience, regardless of whether it is true or not. And it is profitable to peddle anger.
● Impartial reporting is helpful, to give people unbiased information with which to make up their own minds (6.4.3.4). People need to know which outlets they can trust. The BBC, Reuters, and several commercial outlets charging subscriptions, are highly regarded and aim for objectivity.
This page is intended to form part of Edition 4 of the Patterns of Power series of books. An archived copy of it is held at https://www.patternsofpower.org/edition04/643b.htm.