Election Year or Fear!

[Geoff Parkstone]

Hardly just little old me, GP.

Consider this from the Press Gazette:

‘Kier Starmer will have to contend with a largely right wing printed press…

…the Mail, Express titles, Sun and Telegraph give right leaning daily newspapers a substantial 2.2 million to 300,000 circulation advantage over left wing titles’.

Still, what would they know compared to you and Tricky? Must all be in my imagination.

So both the centre right and centre left parties have to contend with political bias. I'd contend that the mainstream centre right parties are to the left of the Mail Express et al and the centre left are to the right of the Grauniad. Reform might best align with the Mail Express etc.

But in all honesty who gets news by buying papers? Most are broadly pointless to anyone under 40, so circulation figures mean nothing. It's the 40+ generation that buy paper papers and their voting patterns are usually locked in by then. Curiously I understand that most of the Sun readers are your mainstream (traditionally labour) working people who buy it for titz and football and likely don't read the political/editorial content. So I'd argue the newspapers are fast losing relevance and the circulation gap isn't so influential.

Voters under 40 seem more influenced by social media rather than "the press" and those over 40 are unlikely to change political beliefs much despite what they read/see/hear.

The Mail might write a lot but it's really preaching to the converted and the Express surely has no place anywhere, still less newsagents shelves

[Geoff Parkstone]

So having just written that I found the article you had cherry picked the quote from. I urge you and anyone interested to read it all. Here's my cherrypick:

"Where things get considerably easier for Keir Starmer than his predecessor Neil Kinnock is when you look at the overall sources of news in the UK. The vast majority are neutral with just two opinionated newsbrands making it into the top 20 sources of news listed by Britons responding to the annual Ofcom survey of news consumption.

Ofcom asked 4,556 adults to name all the platforms they use for news "nowadays" in 2023.

The neutral BBC and other broadcasters dominate the list while some 14% of Britons said they use the right-leaning Mail brands for news and 10% cited the left-leaning Guardian/Observer brands. No other partisan titles feature in the Ofcom top 20.

Facebook is used by 30% of Britons for news."

That last line is deeply disurbing

[Andy_Faber]

Facebook is used by 30% of Britons for news."

That last line is deeply disurbing

Why’s it disturbing GP, genuine question

Maybe it’s the newsfeed slant that’s pushed at me, but most of the ‘news’ I get emanates from ‘trusted’ (ie commercial) entities. I will admit that many of them will of course be ‘clickbating’ and will therefore focus on more controversial news stories at the expense of more important ones, but interrogation suggests they are fact. What then used to surprise but now doesn’t is that most of the stories offering ‘liberal / progressive’ views are responded to, en masse, often in their thousands or more, with opposing ‘conservative’ views.

[Geoff Parkstone]

I despise Facebook as a place for title tattle and phoney people.

[Andy_Faber]

I despise Facebook as a place for title tattle and phoney people.

Well there is that. F1 groups make me genuinely wonder about people

[ramAnag]

So having just written that I found the article you had cherry picked the quote from. I urge you and anyone interested to read it all. Here's my cherrypick:

"Where things get considerably easier for Keir Starmer than his predecessor Neil Kinnock is when you look at the overall sources of news in the UK. The vast majority are neutral with just two opinionated newsbrands making it into the top 20 sources of news listed by Britons responding to the annual Ofcom survey of news consumption.

Ofcom asked 4,556 adults to name all the platforms they use for news "nowadays" in 2023.

The neutral BBC and other broadcasters dominate the list while some 14% of Britons said they use the right-leaning Mail brands for news and 10% cited the left-leaning Guardian/Observer brands. No other partisan titles feature in the Ofcom top 20.

Facebook is used by 30% of Britons for news."

That last line is deeply disurbing

No cherry picking…just identification of the relevant figures, but I can only agree with your final sentence.

[Geoff Parkstone]

I would disagree with your use of the word "relevant" even if accurate. After all more people in the country may own Ford Model T's than Type 10 Bugattis but no one drives either ....

[SithHappens]

Meanwhile Reform have lost 25% of their MPs overnight.

Of course if the allegations against Lowe prove to be true its the right course of action. A lot of support for him online, suggestions it's only happened after he questioned the direction of the party.

[ramAnag]

I would disagree with your use of the word "relevant" even if accurate. After all more people in the country may own Ford Model T's than Type 10 Bugattis but no one drives either ....

Not even sure what that means, unless you’re suggesting that the printed press has become as redundant as the two vehicles described.
My point was that, as far as the printed press is concerned, there is a huge imbalance between any left leaning and right leaning press, a point recognised in the article quoted and I imagine this also extends to the online versions.
My objection to FB and other social media is that it legitimises what would previously have been little more than unfounded gossip and tittle tattle.

[Geoff Parkstone]

Your interpretation is correct.

The interesting things in the article to me are (a) how the online versions of what were printed press seem to be less extreme than the printed ones (b) how little difference there is in the numbers of people citing "biased" news sources (14% to 10% right over left) when compared to the hardcopy printed press circulation figures (c) how little influence the printed papers have as sources of news.