By Ayesha Begum, Senior Editor
Most of us get our political wisdom and information about what’s happening in the world from the media and the internet in general. However, there have been many speculations over the accuracy and objectivity of these sources. Many studies have revealed that some bodies have influenced what is displayed in digital media (sometimes including false and misleading information), in order to give them the upper hand.
Most of us get our political wisdom and information about what’s happening in the world from the media and the internet in general. However, there have been many speculations over the accuracy and objectivity of these sources. Many studies have revealed that some bodies have influenced what is displayed in digital media (sometimes including false and misleading information), in order to give them the upper hand.
This misinformation has led to attitudes that have spurred social conflict and divisions. This often leads to distorted outcomes, when individuals practice democracy (through either debating on public forums or actually voting). These results do not appear to reflect the true thinking process of the individual in question, instead they are being used as the mouthpieces of the greatly influential and elitist bodies behind biased media and fake news, without realising this is the case.
The referendum held in 2016 where the electorate decided whether to stay within the European Union (EU) or not is one of the most notable examples of the danger biased media has on democracy.
One of the ‘selling points’ of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), and other right-leaning political parties, was how leaving the EU would help dissolve immigration from countries both within and outside the EU. In 2016, a photograph of Nigel Farage (then UKIP party leader) standing in front of a poster showing a supposed influx of migrants alongside the captions ‘Breaking Point’ and that the ‘EU has failed us all’ made rounds on social media, where people both disgraced and praised him. The Guardian found that UKIP was also caught up in legal issues as they were ordered by judges to reveal how the party used almost £300,000 of political data services in the run-up to the Brexit vote and 2015 general election.
In the year ending September 2018, an estimated 202,000 EU citizens came to the UK. EU citizens make up a mere 6% of the UK population. For having such close relationships with this union, it is not a surprise that there is an exchange of citizens between the countries and separate bodies.
However, it is those with biased and prejudiced views - whom also, conveniently, have a lot of political power - who have made many Britons think that immigration is an overwhelming problem. As a result, these parties have allowed democracy to fall into their own hands through the malleability of mainstream media instead of in the hands and minds of the people. This is not the ‘rule by the people’ that the intrinsical definition of democracy demands.
Despite individuals making complaints to the police about the poster inciting racial hatred and, thus, breaking with the UK’s laws on race, Farage and his political party/parties remain intact and unharmed. If anything, this was seen as more of a popularity boost rather than a revolutionary takedown. This, again, shows the breakdown of democracy in the UK as a result of biased media, as there would have been many people that were outraged by this incident and their representatives did not appear to try harder to bring justice where required, demonstrating the insignificance of the people.
The 2019 general election also brought up some important questions about the state of our democracy at the hand of the media.
During the election campaign, a Loughborough study found that the way in which the media reported about Labour and Jeremy Corbyn compared to the Conservatives and Boris Johnson differed significantly - and for all the wrong reasons.
The media appeared to favour the Conservatives significantly with the highest positive coverage being in the first week with a +29.98 ranking and the lowest being in the third week with +15.87. Even the lowest amount of positive media coverage is disturbingly higher than any of Labour’s coverage stats; in the first week, Labour bore a -71.17 ranking which increased as the campaign went on as the last week held a -75.79 ranking.
Even big name supporters of the Labour party were also portrayed to be ‘villains’ by mainstream media. Near the end of December 2019, ITV picked out lines of popular grime artist Stormzy’s interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica and distorted it so it seemed that Stormzy was lambasting the entirety of the UK.
When asked by Antonello Guerrera, the interviewer, “You think Britain is still racist?”, Stormzy replied with “Definitely, 100%”. The ITV News Twitter account paraphrased this in such a way that this did not hold the intended meaning. Instead, ITV News titled the article Rapper Stormzy says UK is ‘100 percent’ racist. Although ITV did later apologise and remove the tweet after insistent complaints of the spread of fake, biased news, the damage had already been done. There will have been too many people that didn’t go and read the article in full and considering the fact that ITV reaches 64% of TV viewers every week, this was an extremely dangerous action that will have encouraged dangerous attitudes. A quick search on YouTube shows videos replicating the same title as ITV News with conviction and little doubt over the authenticity of the statement with comment sections stewing with racist remarks.
All of this should raise concerns with all of us and make us second guess the reliability and accuracy of our news sources and the sort of bias these supposed free press and media services actually hold. We should not let our democracy be open to manipulation by those pursuing their own interests and be governed by those who will continue to use loopholes to avoid accountability.
The most obvious way we can maintain the health of our fair democracy is to actually search up any dubious claims and to ensure that they can be found on multiple different reliable websites and sources. When grading the reliability of a source, broadsheet news sources (longer, more factual, usually moderately biased) are much more accurate than tabloid news sources (shorter, more opinionated, usually extremely biased). Remember that democracy is not merely a longer word for voting but incorporates many things such as discussing opinions on public forums, protesting, creating and contributing to e-petitions, or even joining a political party once you are over 13.
Not only does this show us that we have to maintain constant vigilance when we are looking at political information online, it also raises questions over the relevancy of electoral laws that were implemented in 2000 in today's technology heavy society and puts forward the proposition of reform.
As members of the CLV Phoenix, we can assure you that all information provided in our own newspaper is accurate, perhaps moderately biased at times but know that you can always trust us!
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