MRC asked some leading advocates of media reform for their reaction to the result of the general election. Angela Phillips: The media and the polls Outrage about the bias of the media has been a constant over many years of elections but the past four years allow us to make a fairly direct comparison between events. The main thing that has changed is not the … [Read more...]
New Report: Who Owns the UK Media?
We produced our first comprehensive report on media ownership in the UK back in 2015 when we argued concentrated ownership was a significant problem for any modern democracy. In 2019, we produced an updated version that suggests that, not only does concentrated ownership persist but that the problem may be getting worse. This report shows that just three companies (News … [Read more...]
Ofcom dismiss complaints of BBC bias
After more than 12 weeks deliberation, Ofcom have this week announced that they will not be investigating the BBC's controversial Panorama edition on antisemitism in the Labour Party. Broadcast five months ahead of last December's general election, the programme was the third Panorama edition in four years focused on, and wholly critical of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the … [Read more...]
Public interest solutions to data abuses
by Angela Phillips and Eleonora Mazzoli This is the first of our posts for 2020 in which Prof Angela Phillips and Eleonora Mazzoli reflect on some potential solutions - including constraints on micro targeting and the development of a public service search engine - to abuses of individual users' data. It was originally published on the Media@LSE blog and is reproduced with … [Read more...]
How the media helped Boris Johnson win the election
by Natalie Fenton, chair of the Media Reform Coalition The mediation of messages plays a key part in the outcome of most elections and the United Kingdom's December 12 general election was no exception. Incumbent Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party took the single strapline "Get Brexit Done" and repeated it endlessly. The slogan was plastered on … [Read more...]
Reflections on the election from a journalism student
by Clara Hill There are many things that attracted me to pursue a career in journalism. Mainly, that I might as well monetise my irritating love of 24 hour news I inherited from my father. In some ways, this is an unfortunate ambition because it is no secret that the British media is largely biased towards the right. From my point of view, it is unclear whether this … [Read more...]
Election 2019 manifesto pledges on media reform: what’s in and what’s not
by Natalie Fenton The media have been central actors in this General Election campaign. Research by Loughborough University has shown the dominance of pro-Conservative party and anti-Labour Party coverage in the national press and others have claimed forcefully that the BBC has failed in its duty of impartial reporting. Cries of misrepresentation, under-representation, … [Read more...]
Where’s the impartiality? #GenElec2019
by Justin Schlosberg Time for a review of impartiality rules during elections? It is frequently said that a free media is the cornerstone of a healthy democracy and none more so than during an election period. But democracy is only well served if all political views are given equal prominence and fair interrogation. We know we have a partisan press but during … [Read more...]