POLITICS AND THE MEDIA

Example of Politics and the Media

Hurricane Katrina news research progress

So far i have used an internet search engine to find several useful articles (including one from San Fransico Chronical), and some statistical data of TV audiences in America during the hurricane Katrina crisis from Nielsen Media Research. I have also found some textual news footage from NBC and Fox news, and am planning to send an e-mail a questionnaire to a professor of sociology at San Diego University who has done relevant research into my topic. I next plan to do check for any relevant books that may be useful, and perform a focus group that has seen the news broadcasts.

Bias On the BBC 10 'clock News

Primary sources of research:
Textual analysis of BBC 10 o'clock News on YouTube
A questionnaire
Interview with Dave Evans-Politics Teacher and TeddyBear- administrator of a website called Bias-easy as BBC.

Secondary sources:
Truth Betrayed by W.J. West
The Truth Twisters by Richard Deacon
An article by KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky called the Red Service in The Daily Telegraph
www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice
www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk

the times vs the daily mail

Daily Mail

Circulation: 2,342,000- www.answers.com/topic/dailymail

Poltical alliegance- right wing

Readership most strong in east Anglia where it has 14.8% of the readership


The Times

Circulation: 642,895

Political alleigance: centrist

owned by the news corporation group headed by rupert murdoch

'though traditionally a moderately center right newpaper and a supporter of the conservatives, it supported the labour party in the 2001 and 2005 general elections' www.ft.com/cms


How readers intended to vote in 2004/2005 elections

The times

cons- 43%
Lab-25%
lib-24%

the daily mail

cons- 55%
lab-21%
lib-16%
source(mori)

with love
tom mckay

tony blair and religion

Full Text :COPYRIGHT 2007 Solo Syndication Limited

Byline: Sam Greenhill

TONY BLAIR says that God was 'hugely important' in influencing hisdecisions in power, including going to war in Iraq.

The former Prime Minister, who has previously brushed aside religiousquestions, now admits he underplayed his faith out of fear of being seen as a'nutter'.

'If I am honest about it, yes of course it was hugely important,' he said in aninterview for BBC1's The Blair Years. 'There is no point in me denying it, Ihappen to have religious conviction.

I don't actually think there is anything wrong in having religious conviction -on the contrary, I think it is a strength for people.' Mr Blair, who is widelybelieved to be on the verge of converting to Roman Catholicism, said it wasdifficult to be open about faith in Britain, unlike in America where votersexpect their politicians to be comfortable talking about it.

'You talk about it in our system and, frankly, peoand ple do think you're anutter,' he told the BBC programme to be broadcast next Sunday.

He said voters tended to think that religious politicians 'go off and sit inthe corner and & commune with the man upstairs and then come back and say,"Right, I've been told the answer and that's it".' His remarks had a mixedreception.

Damian Thompson, editor of the Catholic Herald, said: 'In the eyes of manyRoman Catholics, Mr Blair is a hypocrite. There was passionate opposition inthe Catholic community to the Iraq war, which Pope John Paul II condemnedunreservedly.' But the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, said: 'Mr Blair'scomments highlight the need for greater recognition to be given to the rolefaith has played in shaping our country.' Melanie Phillips - Page 14

Source Citation:"Blair: I kept quiet about God so I wouldn't be seen as a nutter." The Daily Mail (London, England) (Nov 26, 2007): 4. InfoTrac Full Text Newspapers Database. Gale. Long Road VI Form College. 30 Nov. 2007
.

Gale Document Number:CJ171792759

Helpful book references

Book - What the Media are doing to our politics.
Author - John Lloyd
Chapter - They will gobble you up
Page - 77
This is about the power struggle between the media and government over the Kelly affair.

Book - Mass Media, politics and democracy
Author - John Street
Chapter - Telling tales: the reporting of politics
Page - 36
Briefly outlines how the media sways from the truth about political issues. Also how some media owners are bias towards certain political ideologies.

Book - Mass Media, politics and democracy.
Author - John Street
Chapter - Political bias
Page - 15
Defines all types of political bias used in the media.

references

media magazine
issue 4, april 2003
page 51

Fox News

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_News_Channel_controversies

Talks about Controversies on the Fox News Channel

other secondary research

Ethical Issues in Journalism and the Media, (1992), Andrew Bekey & Ruth Chadwick, Routledge

Secondary Research Source

1) The Media and Political Process, Eric Louw, 2005, SAGE Productions, Chapter 9 Page 195

2) Mass Media, Politics and Democracy, John Street, 2001, Palgrave, Chapter 2 Page 47

secondary research sources

Today we went to the LRC to look through books and magazines to see what we could find on politics and the media. Also we saw a small tour of the use of Infotrack a online reference search engine.
For todays task we were asked to find two useful references of books we could use for our critical research topic. Here are my two.

What the media are doing to our politics.
John Lloyd chapter 1 page 27

The Media and political process.
Eric Louw Sage publications chapter 7 page 143