Media Research Concludes British Newspapers Became Less Political

May 22, 2011
Marc Latham

Rupert Murdoch, Owner of The Times, Sun, News of World - David Shankbone

In the early twentieth century British newspapers were politically partisan, but as the century progressed they became market orientated, research found.

The British newspaper industry became more financially aware, and less politically partisan during the twentieth century, and this increased towards the end of the millennium. As the government of the UK moved to the centre, there was a similar occurrence in the media, with a press that was historically partisan along political lines moving toward a more apolitical reporting.

The British Newspaper Industry Became Less Partisan

James Curran wrote that the character of the British press changed through the twentieth century, as the papers became more loosely connected to the political parties they traditionally supported. [1]

This decline in newspaper partisanship increased in the 1990s, as many Conservative papers grew disillusioned with the Conservative government under John Major. Colin Seymour-Ure wrote that for most of the twentieth century the Conservative press had been disproportionately strong, both in number of titles and size of circulation, but in 1997 there was a massive shift to support for the Labour party, and six papers turned away from the Conservatives. [2]

Changes in Allegiance for the British Press

Brian McNair also referred to this change in political allegiance by the press, and wrote that in 1997 the Guardian, Independent, Financial Times (FT), Sun, Mirror and Star supported Labour in the election; the Mail, Express and Telegraph supported the Tories; while The Times was neutral. [3]

Seymour-Ure wrote that what made the shift in support for Labour look so extraordinary was that in the fourteen general elections from 1945 to 1992 they had only once had the support of three national dailies. Moreover, during that time there had only been one unqualified U-turn by a paper in support of one of the major parties, when the Sun switched from Labour to Conservative in 1974. If every paper had changed at every election, there could in theory have been 150 changes. [4]

Journalists Choose Career Over Political Partisanship

As well as the newspapers becoming less politically partisan, David Walker believes that journalistic loyalty to papers based on their political leanings has also diminished, and they are more likely to take jobs for the amount of money on offer than the political views of the paper, leading to ‘a growing sameness’ in British journalism. [5]

For readers, the trend of newspapers becoming less partisan could be positive or negative. Some readers preferred to receive their news from papers that totally supported their political views, so they liked the old system better, while others preferred a balanced coverage of the news.

Sources

[1] J. Curran, Media and Power, (London and New York: Routledge, 2002), p. 67.
[2] C. Seymour-Ure., Are the Broadsheets becoming Unhinged?, in J. Seaton, (ed)., Politics and the Media: Harlots and Prerogatives at the Turn of the Millennium, (Oxford and Malden: Blackwell, 1998), pp. 43-52, p. 48.
[3] B. McNair., The Sociology of Journalism, (London: Arnold, 1998), p. 107. The source of the information was the Audit Bureau of Circulation.
[4] C. Seymour-Ure., op.cit, p. 48.
[5] D. Walker., Newspaper Power: A Practitioner’s Account, in H. Tumber., Media Power, Professionals and Policies, (London: Routledge, 2000), pp. 236-246, p. 244-5.