NDM: Institutional bias - fading influence?

Institutional bias: blog tasks

Read 'The Press and the Prime Minister' - an analysis of the media coverage of the 2015 UK general election. You'll need our Media Magazine archive - go to MM53 (page 12).

1) What does the article suggest was the main media influence on the 2015 general election?
This article claims that the media within the UK severely effected the results of the 2015 general election. Specifically, they claim that the newspapers were biased and promoted the right wing, conservative party more than the left. This was claimed to be because Murdoch who owns most of the media, is right wing.

2) What examples are provided of how social media was used during the 2015 election campaign?

The sun released an unflattering photo of Ed Miliband eating a sandwich which caused a social media trend whereby people on twitter used a hashtag to further mock him. . Also, Russel Brand had a large following on his YouTube channel but Labour still lost the election. This suggests social media still doesn't have all of the power that traditional media forms do.

3) Does analysis of the 2015 election suggest that new and digital media has challenged the power of traditional institutions?
There is definitely a huge impact that new forms of the media has on something like an election. It shows that it impacts mostly the youth rather than older people. On the other hand, traditional media still appears to have a larger impact as the people following them make up a larger part of the population. 

Now read this Guardian article on social media influence in the recent 2017 UK general election. 

4) Why does it suggest Labour "won the social media election" in 2017?
It says that the conservations had an unprepared and unresponsive digital campaign whereas Labour was 'polished'. Labour's positive social media presence is what suggests they won the 'social media election'. This is reinforced by Singh who claimed that  “Labour had a positive, hopeful message.” 

5) What examples are provided of how the parties used social media during the 2017 election campaign?
Labour promoted their hashtag #forthemany on Twitter.

6) Does analysis of the 2017 election suggest that new and digital media has challenged the power of traditional institutions?
It appears that gradually social media is overtaking traditional media. 

7) Finally, write a paragraph summarising your own opinion on this debate: Have the inequalities that characterise old media ownership extended into new media ownership? Is the internet run by powerful media institutions?
Personally, I feel that social media is becoming more and more dominated by regular people. Social media platforms specifically have user generated content and considering most users are regular people, most the content is coming from them. However, currently there are still certain people inn the media with more power because of their status e.g celebrities.