This fully-updated new edition of Politics and the Mass Media provides a comprehensive introduction to the role of mass communications in politics at all levels, from election campaigns, news reports and lobbying groups to the media activities of pressure groups. The relationship between politics, politicians and the media is a matter of increasingly contentious debate, as politicians' awareness of the importance of the media becomes more sophisticated amidst rapidly-advancing media technology and control. Providing a review of the nature and content of political communications and of recent theoretical developments, Negrine addresses the issues surrounding today's mass media, including cable and satellite television, investigation of the press, the relationship between the state and broadcasing institutions and the ever-present question of whether or not Britain needs a media policy. This new edition includes: * Case studies from television and the press * Fully revised text with updated sections on the press, broadcasting and media legislation * Brand new chapters on Europe and globalisation

This book explores the ways in which the emergence of the ‘new’ daily mass press of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries represented a hugely significant period in histories of both the British press and the British political system. Drawing on a parallel analysis of election-time newspaper content and archived political correspondence, the author argues that the ‘new dailies’ were a welcome and vibrant addition to the mass political culture that existed in Britain prior to World War 1. Chapters explore the ways in which the three ‘new dailies’ – Mail, Express, and Mirror – represented political news during the four general elections of the period; how their content intersected with, and became a part of, the mass consumer culture of pre-Great War Britain; and the differing ways political parties reacted to this new press, and what those reactions said about broader political attitudes towards the worth of ‘mass’ political communication. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of media history, British popular politics, journalism history, and media studies.

Politics is above all a contest, and the news media are the central arena for viewing that competition. One of the central concerns of political communication has to do with the myriad ways in which politics has an impact on the news media and the equally diverse ways in which the media influences politics. Both of these aspects in turn weigh heavily on the effects such political communication has on mass citizens. In Making Sense of Media and Politics, Gadi Wolfsfeld introduces readers to the most important concepts that serve as a framework for examining the interrelationship of media and politics: political power can usually be translated into power over the news media when authorities lose control over the political environment they also lose control over the news there is no such thing as objective journalism (nor can there be) the media are dedicated more than anything else to telling a good story the most important effects of the news media on citizens tend to be unintentional and unnoticed. By identifying these five key principles of political communication, the author examines those who package and send political messages, those who transform political messages into news, and the effect all this has on citizens. The result is a brief, engaging guide to help make sense of the wider world of media and politics and an essential companion to more in-depths studies of the field.

Elections ask voters to choose between political parties. But voters across the UK are increasingly being presented with fundamentally different, and largely disconnected, sets of political choices. This book is about this hollowing out of a genuinely British democratic politics: how and why it has occurred, and why it matters. Electoral choices across Britain became increasingly differentiated along national lines over much of the last half-century. In 2017, for the second general election in a row, four different parties came first in the UK's four nations. UK voters are increasingly faced with general election campaigns that are largely disconnected from each other. At the same time, voters acquire much of their information about the election from news-media based in London that display little understanding of these national distinctions. The UK continues to elect representatives to a single parliament. But the shared debates and sets of choices that tie a political community together are increasingly absent. Separate national political arenas and agendas still have to interact but in some respects the House of Commons increasingly resembles the European Parliament – whose members are democratically chosen but from a disconnected series of separate national electoral contests. This is deeply problematic for the long-term unity and integrity of the UK.

The revised and updated eighth edition of the bestselling textbook Politics UK is an indispensible introduction to British politics. It provides a thorough and accessible overview of the institutions and processes of British government, a good grounding in British political history and an incisive introduction to the issues facing Britain today. With contributed chapters from respected scholars in the field and contemporary articles on real-world politics from well-known political commentators, this textbook is an essential guide for students of British politics. The eighth edition welcomes brand new material from eight new contributors to complement the rigorously updated and highly valued chapters retained from the previous edition. The eighth edition includes: · Britain in context boxes offering contrasting international perspectives of themes in British politics. · A comprehensive 'who's who' of politics in the form of Profile boxes featuring key political figures. · And another thing ... pieces: short articles written by distinguished commentators including Jonathan Powell, Michael Moran and Mark Garnett. · Fully updated chapters plus new material providing excellent coverage of contemporary political events including: The Leveson Inquiry, the aftermath of the 2011 riots and the House of Lords reform. · A vibrant and accessible new design to excite and engage students as the work through a variety of political topics. · A new epilogue to the book offering a critical perspective of the trials and tribulations of the Coalition Government, including an overview of the major differences that divide the coalition partners.

In the century since women were first eligible to stand and vote in British general elections, they have relied on news media to represent their political perspectives in the public realm. This book provides a systematic analysis of electoral coverage by charting how women candidates, voters, politicians' spouses, and party leaders have been portrayed in newspapers since 1918. The result is a fascinating account of both continuity and change in the position of women in British politics. The book demonstrates that for women to be effectively represented in the political domain, they must also be effectively represented in the public discussion of politics that takes place in the media.

How social media is giving rise to a chaotic new form of politics As people spend increasing proportions of their daily lives using social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, they are being invited to support myriad political causes by sharing, liking, endorsing, or downloading. Chain reactions caused by these tiny acts of participation form a growing part of collective action today, from neighborhood campaigns to global political movements. Political Turbulence reveals that, in fact, most attempts at collective action online do not succeed, but some give rise to huge mobilizations—even revolutions. Drawing on large-scale data generated from the Internet and real-world events, this book shows how mobilizations that succeed are unpredictable, unstable, and often unsustainable. To better understand this unruly new force in the political world, the authors use experiments that test how social media influence citizens deciding whether or not to participate. They show how different personality types react to social influences and identify which types of people are willing to participate at an early stage in a mobilization when there are few supporters or signals of viability. The authors argue that pluralism is the model of democracy that is emerging in the social media age—not the ordered, organized vision of early pluralists, but a chaotic, turbulent form of politics. This book demonstrates how data science and experimentation with social data can provide a methodological toolkit for understanding, shaping, and perhaps even predicting the outcomes of this democratic turbulence.