Effectiveness of the Media

There has been a debate for a number of years on whether the media has an effect on the way that people vote in elections

Newspapers Newspapers can encourage people to vote for a particular party –but many people already know which party their newspaper supports – and are buying a newspaper that goes with their political beliefs Furthermore, many people have lost trust in newspapers in recent years

However, newspapers played a key role in bringing the UK out of the EU, the EU was not an issue which was high on most people’s political agenda until the newspapers started to link it to immigration

Party Political broadcasts Every political party is entitled to a number of five minute slots on television just before or after the news, based on the number of votes they got n the previous election. There is a lot of evidence that these don’t really do much to change people’s minds on who to vote for, as many people turn off when they are on.

Leaders’ Debates Before elections, the leaders of the main parties ave a number of opportunities to take part in debates. This gives smaller parties the chance to showcase their policies. In 2016, Labour and the Conservatives managed to make it seem like the SNP were still fighting for independence despite losing the 2014 referendum, this may have lost them a few votes and gained the Conservatives the place of second largest party in the Scottish Parliament

Social Media This is a much cheaper way of campaigning –getting supporters to like and share This can encourage people to vote the same way as their friends do. The Internet has also made it possible to get news from different sources – few newspapers support the SNP, but there are influential news sources like “Wings over Scotland” which provide more pro SNP news