It is often the case that the media and the political institutions rely on each other in order to succeed, when world issues appear such as the terrorist attack on the United States. It is more important that the government control what is being said, as it is more vital that public opinion supports the government’s decisions. The Media Emergency Forum is an example of the two institutions working together. This was set up in the mid 90’s to take into account the issues that are brought up in the media about public emergencies. June 2002 a report reflecting a more favourable relationship between the authorities was completed by the Joint Working Party, it was titled 9/11: Implications for Communication. Its foundation was that dedication to public service was a shared responsibility of both the media and authorities in exceptional circumstances. The report considered how, together, the media and authorities could transmit important information to the public effectively without causing a panic. ()
The authorities recognised the most effective way of communicating with the public is through the media and so is a valuable resource to them. On a government web site set up as a help site on the problem of terrorists and they issued this advise “GO IN, STAY IN and TUNE IN. Go indoors and stay there. The authorities will use local radio and TV to deliver information” ()
The relationship between the media and politics can be perceived as often hostile but also as having shared interests. What is ambiguous in the relationship is who sets out the issues in the media and who responds to them. For example was it the government who wanted stories in the media to gain support over the war in Iraq? Or did the media make terrorism an issue in which the government responded to?
“Bias is a small word that identifies the collective influences of the entire context of a message” (www.rhetorica.net) and so it can be argued that any story deemed newsworthy, is more or less always presented from one angle, such as crime is increasing or decreasing, or from either the workers point of view or the managers in news about industrial disputes. Harrison points out that television news misses out important and essential facts when reporting on industrial disputes. (Harrison, 1985, p47) Thus news stories are just that a story presented to the viewer about what is being said without an explanation behind the scenes of the event.
The majority of bias in the news is often said by its critics to be based upon who owns the company, although the owners generally deny this, Rupert Murdock once claimed “I challenge anybody to show me an example of bias in Fox News channel” (). However, analysts at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) found that out of 95 guests on the ‘Signature Political News Show’ 65 were self-declared conservatives, CNN compared by having a fairly small incline towards the republicans. ()
Another argument about why bias exists in the news media is that journalist’s write up the information that is given too them, rather than seek out the truth and the issues for themselves about a story. As Steven C Day observes “For a profession that writes so much about the nature of political spin, it seems awfully wiling to put forth any information that it is fed” () What is important is the issues that arise from the stories and their inherent bias, as it is these that can be alleged to effect the public perception of the issue and make the government respond either by considering new policies for new issues that arise such as asylum seekers of modify existing ones such as prevention of crime.
During the 1960’s there came about a big issue of youths in the news media, that is now referred to as a moral panic, “occurs when some highly cherished, rather commonly accepted value is threatened and when no certain elimination of the threat is in sight” (Glover, 1984, p13). This panic was brought about by a single event that happened in Brighton. This is not the only event that has led to issues being made a major concern to society written about in the media, for example Hall wrote about street muggings by black people in the 70’s, then there was the aids panic and more recently the panic about paedophilia, asylum seekers and terrorists.
The classic study of a moral panic approach was Stanley Cohen’s ‘Folk Devils And Moral Panics’ that was concerned with how the deviant acts of the youth in society were picked out and highlighted by the media, and then the influence that this would have upon acts of a similar nature occurring. Cohen broke moral panics down into six phases. (Cohen) Thompson highlighted the key elements of a moral panic identified by Cohen. The first is that an event poses as a threat to the interests of a part of society; this is then portrayed in a news story by the media, which creates the panic in terms of the concern it raises in the public sphere. Finally a response is made to this concern by the authorities and the panic diminishes or there is a change in society. (Thompson, 1998, p8) the medias effect is determined by Cohen as ‘amplification spiral’, which serves to reinforce the events as problems, where the attention and escalation of the deviance is due to the reaction it receives from the government, police and courts. (Glover, 1984, p16) Consequently the media is affecting the policy process, by influencing what the public should be concerned about, as Cohen points out legislation meets the pressures of public opinion.
However, this theory of the cause and effect of moral panics does not adequately explain the reaction to news stories that cause concern in the public and the response that it provokes. Cohen’s study is based upon deviants and assumes the response is a reaction of the right and the reaction to stop the behaviour is a reaction to preserve the rights of the powerful, however some moral panics or the issues they represent challenge the government and the powerful. It is not always the moral panic that results in a response from the government or other powerful groups; times of election are times when political parties respond to the public. The main objection to Cohen’s theory of moral panics is that it simplifies the medias effect and the political response that follows. (Critcher, 2002, p529) Another model that explains the medias effect upon the policy is the agenda-setting theory.
Conceptual Model. Agenda-Setting
Source: McQuail and Windahl. Cited on ()
A concern about the media of its effects on the public and thus on policy is with the decision that some events are given importance in the news over other events that occur, this is important as it has been shown that what is of high importance on the medias agenda corresponds with what issues are of high importance to the public and politicians. Agenda setting approaches try to explain what the implication of this is. Walter Lippmann pointed out the public reacts to the pictures in our head that we receive from the media and not the event itself. (www.tcw.utwente.nl.com) Unlike the moral panic analysis where media is thought to contribute to the individuals behaviour, agenda setting concept is more in line with the uses and gratification approach to studying the effects of the media, that is the way the audience can influence the media rather than the effects of the media upon the audience. As Glover points out, “the selective ways in which people make the media a part of there every day life” (Glover, 1984, p8) The public have a need for information that they will satisfy through certain television programmes and other media sources that are individual to them (McQuail, 1987, p276) for example the issue of tuition fees would be more relevant to a student than to a young professional.
The agenda-setting approach has only three processes; firstly the media prioritises the issues that will appear in the news, affecting the public’s opinion and the public agenda of the important issues in society. As a response to the people it aims to represent the government must respond and so the policy agenda will reflect public opinion. Gatekeepers are of importance as owners of news corporation’s editors, or government officials that can influence what issues are portrayed in the media.
An example of how the agenda-setting concept works can be illustrated by the medias portrayal of asylum seekers. Since September the 11th, there has been much media attention about the influx of refugees into the United Kingdom. The high importance of this issue on the medias agenda, made the issue of great concern to the public. Resulting in a new policy to deal with the concerns of the public, the question is though was there really a problem at all? Before the policy was implemented, the government tried to reduce the issue through the media, after articles appeared in the news blaming the media and politicians for the hostility towards them, as one head line read, “Civil rights groups blame politicians and media for race hostility” () A sub- group of the National Refugee Integration Forum was set up to produce a broader picture of asylum seekers and issues surrounding them in the press. ()
A few months later on November the 7th 2002 The National Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 was given Royal Assent. (). What can be taken from this example in relation to agenda setting is that every body’s agenda changes but it is not clear why. In terms of the moral panic approach it could be argued that the opposing political party, the Conservatives used the media to undermine the government and gain strong support for their campaign, and one news story about asylum and racial violence led to an increased occurrence and so more attention to the issue. However, using the agenda setting approach.
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