Impact of Arrival of Television on Electioneering In England Essay Example for Free

Impact of Arrival of Television on Electi unityering In England EssayINTRODUCTIONThe craft of television marked he beginning of a new epoch. The age of information technology made information available at the push of a saveton. Facts and distortion of facts argon the tools of the entertainment industry. Exaggeration is the premise on which the advertizing agency works. It is confluence of the audio visual impact which is angiotensin converting enzyme of the most flop influences that is experienced by the individual. It left no human endeavor untouched .The fate of democracy is determined by the elections. Television was utilized for escapeing of the lavdidates active in the election.It brought about a complete revamping of the election campaign. Local issues were sidelined and an emphasis on the national campaign was the dominant feature of the election process.1Mass media had completely magnetise both the masses and the persons answerable for planning and execution of the election campaign. The recent proliferation of the media bring has led to a depletion of issues that commode be aired on these channels . therefore there has been a shift from national to topical anesthetic politics. The impact of the television is not just limited to what is going to be at the forefront but it has led to complete overhaul of the process.The campaigns be much(prenominal) articulate and well planned .The concept of negative publicity has been inducted like it was done never before. The elections argon loosing personal touch as there is more emphasis on the how to air the campaign. Consequently the expenditure on the elections is rising partly because of infalation and partly because the campaigns be conducted on grand scale. British Law permits each companionship to air its programme, policies and agendas on the national channels across England for 20 minutes without paying some(prenominal) tariff for putting it on air. Each society is given a maximum of five repeat telecast.HISTORY OF POLITICAL BROADCASTpolitical broadcast started in Britain in 1924 on radio with a20 minute each(prenominal)ocation time for each companionship. it was started on television in 1951. It was an un gainful time slot of 15 minutes that was allocated to each party. The governmental broadcasts ar regulated by the 1990 Broadcasting Act and the semipolitical Parties, Elections and Referendum Act 2000.The initial directives of the act forbade that the political advertisement should not be purely political in nature.In 2001 general election the three major political parties were given five chances to broadcast their political campaign where as the minor political parties were given one chance if they were contesting one sixth of the total seats. 5 and 10 minutes of political advertisements were replaced by 240, 340 or 440and a stricture is placed on them so that they should not violate decency and good taste.All the political electoral broadcast by var ious party argon simultaneously aired .These are either preceded or followed by previews and reviews by the major news paper daily and there fore the messages are a kind of reinforced. Currently there is ongoing debate on whether the system of political broadcast should be completely scraped or it should be revise with a provision of paid commercials.Since time immemorial it has been stated that effective governance is related to whether the voters establish made an informed choice. It is privileged class who ordain try different means to gather information about the party and basindidates standing in the election. The masses either do not makes a conscious(p) effort to gather information or they rely on effortless means to gain information about the political parties. What the media is re looking can differ. On the one hand it can be balanced objective on the other hand it can be preferential2It has been observed that commercial broadcasting system can have ulterior motives as they are there to maximize their benefits. The national broadcasting system is more conducive to producing objective information about the political parties3.Political advertising in England is more party oriented where as in America the emphasis is on the candidate .Lot of attention is being paid to the effect of use of media in the election .It is very uncorrectable to conclusively prove that what results it is going to produce .England is a very old democracy and all the parties have their particular image .Media cannot altogether alter the image of the party .It can highlight the work of the party and it can make the manifesto more lucrative. This premise is in accordance with the earliest studies of the impact of television on the electoral outcomes by Blumler and McQuail.4The party campaign through the media is expected to effect the voter turn out. It can bring to the forefront various campaign issues. It can create an enthusiasm for gathering more information about the pa rty programmes.5These untimely studies reflected that voting for political parties were a matter of class and the election campaign served very little purpose. 6The buttoned-up and the tire party were dividing the voters on the basis of who did manual(a) effort and who didnt work with their hands i.e the managers and the employers and the middle classThe voters who changed their loyalties from one party to another were primarily for a short term. It has been observed that this faction was to wave back its support to he party which it originally adhered to. It can be said that these floating voters can be influenced by the televised transmission of the electoral campaign.This can be contended because the labour part lost three elections in a row in 1959 although the class that does manual labour constitute major accumulate of the electorate. The material prosperity entailed a spread of the middle class values and hence the conservatives won the election.The messages that are a ired during the political campaigns in election are not the only information available to the electorate. The long term memory of the people might be short. That doesnt mean that the events political debates press conferences, by- elections etc antedate the election campaign have no consequence.The election campaign through the media is of two kinds. One in which the focus is on the image building or the achievement of the party .The other kind deals with the character assassination of the opponent. If the attack broadcasting is exaggerated and is not substantiated then it can create sympathy for the opponent. The conservative party campaign nick named Demon eye of 1997 was counter productive It created an image of bray as leftwing radicals.The electorate had experience a moderate labour party government under the leadership of Tony Blair. A caricature of Mr. Bust and Mr. Boom was used to depict the economic condition of England .The facts that Britain had experienced a spurt in t he economy in 1980 under the leadership of Thatcher. This kind of media campaign has to be used with great caution as it is either counterproductive or it does not have any effect on the target audience. If there are fractions within the party then it can bolster unity among the contending fractions.The persuasive propaganda is more useful and or so all the parties realize that it is the best way to campaign .It pays attention to detailing the ideology of the party. It is oriented on the fact that the achievement of the party is highlighted. Moreover it is presented in manner that it appears more entertaining so as to keep the audience hooked on to it. It can be proved that the parties are more interested in this positive kind of advertisement by looking at the percentage of the campaign allocated to the political advertisement. Negative references were a piddling and similar proportion of the total literature of all three parties 8.7 per cent Conservative, 10.4 Labour, 9.8 per ce nt Liberal Democrat.The televised broadcast of the political party programmes is useful tools because the minor political parties get a chance to make themselves entangle. This is true for most of the countries who have democracy and who have televised political advertisement.7 Even .The liberal democrats were able to make themselves felt through their advocacy strategy. In 1951 the minor parties had around 10% to 3% of the vote share. This vote share increased in the 1997 and almost one 4th of the total share of the vote. There are many reasons for the increase in the vote share of the relatively new and unknown political parties like complaisant class.Education of the voter as it determines whether it is an informed choice or not. Media especially the print media is specially tilted in favor of conservative parties IT was in the I970s that the researches were conducted and it reflected that a change had occurred in the political environment of Britain .The voters were not holdi ng to the rigid class bias of the political parties due to the influence of the television. The other federal agent that is prudent for this change was the economic affluence in England as that was responsible for mitigating the gap between the rich and the poor.8Other researches argue that this doesnt mean that class politics has changed alternatively it can be seen as both the parties are going out of favor.Heath et al argue analysts have mistaken changes in behavior by voters for changes in their motivation without asking first whether or not the political stimulus they have received is still the same or not. They suggest, for example, that variations in the vividness of the class alignment may well reflect changes in the distance between the parties on class-based issues.9The voters are not taking their decisions in vacuum there are certain political and social issues that are motivating the voters to vote for apolitical parties. The short term shift in the voters preference is based on the perception of the competence of the parties,. The parties in power can effectively utilize the print as well as the television in advertizing its achievement .There have been fears that the hegemony of the media was responsible for the conservatives winning the election as they have the hegemony over the press. It has been time and again proved television is not the sole deciding factor in determining the outcome of the election.The 1980s saw a shift from the national to regional politics .There was a variation in the voting patterns from one region to another. If television has been the main sway in the elections then the entire country should have shown a similar pattern. Local campaign did make a difference The surveys conducted by the Labour party showed that Its percentage of votes was directly related to number of people working for the party 10Local campaign play an grave role in persuading the voters to vote for a particular party. It is very difficult to f ind out what was the ultimate reason for voting as the preferences of an individual are shaped in the recesses of an individuals mind. Television came second in the list of what influenced the voters of the survey conducted by MORI .The regional television can be utilized to create amore local and specific advertisement for the electorate. This area has yet to be explored by the political party..The labour party topped the list of frequency of the reference of the constituencies and it made almost 28.7 per cent of sentences referring to local provision. The Conservatives made 16.5 per cent and made the Liberal Democrats 10.2 per cent references to the local issues. This means the elections are by and large fought on national issues which are effectively transmitted through the television. The lab our party has thrice lost elections till 1997. This reflects that though they made more references to the local electoral constituencies they were unable to convert the voters in their favo ur.CONCLUSIONIt is seen that the advent of television had completely changed the way in which we look at the different issues .Things which are of relatively lesser importance can be presented in an innovative method .The election process in England has its own peculiarities. Television didnt bring about a complete rendering of the election process of Britain. England is one of the oldest proponents of the institution of democracy. The two major parties the lobour and conservatives have their peculiar images .Television cannot completely alter the public perception. The older generation is more difficult to mould as its ideas are set .The televised broadcasting of the party manifesto can be aimed at the youth which is more likely to change its preferences.A perceptible shift is seen in the support base of the two major political parties the Labour party was supported by the people doing manual labour and the conservatives were supported by the middle class. The class distinction wa s thought to be the basis of the voting pattern. Now this distinction is becoming less and less key as media and economic affluence has reduced the gap between the rich and poor. The influence of television has backfired on the two major parties .The minor political parties have increased their vote percentage. The major beneficiary is the Liberal Democratic Party.Although it has been the pristine premise that the informed electorate can lead to the formation of more effective and responsible government .It can be said with certainty that the voters of the present age are more informed but there is difference between having friendship and judicious use of knowledge..The other aspect of this election scenario of England is that there is no alternative to the present parties on the national level .Even if the voter is aware of the shortcomings of the present parties, he has no choice. The voters have to choose the lesser evil.REFERENCESBlumler, Jay G. and Denis Mc Quail. 1968. Telev ision in Politics Its Uses and Influence. London Faber Faber.n.pBonham, J. (1954), The Middle Class ballot (London Faber)pp 56-62Butler, D. and Stokes, D (1974) Political Change in Britain(2nd. edition) pp54-78(London Macmillan)Evans, G. Heath, A., and Payne, C. (1999), Class Labour as a Catch-All Party? in Evans, G. and Norris, P. (eds.), Critical Elections British Parties and Voters in Long-Term Perspective n.p (London clear-sighted)Kaid, Lynda Lee and rump C. Tedesco. 1993. A comparison of political television advertising fromthe 1992 British and American campaigns. Informatologia 25(1-2) 1-12Kavanagh, The British General Election of 2001. Basingstoke n.p Palgrave MacmillanNews on Party Images in the 1997 British General Election. British Elections and PartiesNorris, 2001. Ed. Britain Votes 2001.n.p Oxford Oxford University Press.Norris et al .1999 Norris and Sanders 2000 pp 110-120Sanders, David and Pippa Norris. 1998. Does Negative News Matter? The Effects of TelevisionSemet ko , holi .A 1996 The Media In Comparing democracies edited by Lawerence Le Duc,Richard Niemaand Pippa Norris LondonSage pp254-279Seyd, P. P. Whiteley (2002) New Labours Grass Roots The Transformation of Labour Party Membership, Houndmills Palgrave Macmillan.pp10-38Zaller John2003Anew standerd of the news quality Burglar alarm Monitorial CitizensPolitical communication20 109-1301 (Kavanagh, (1970). The British General Election of 2001. Basingstoke Palgrave Macmillan News on Party Images in the 1997 British General Election. British Elections and Parties n,p2 Zaller John2003Anew standerd of the news quality Burglar alarm Monitorial CitizensPolitical communication20 pp109-1303 Semetko , holi .A 1996 The Media In Comparing democracies edited by Lawerence Le Duc,Richard Niemaand Pippa Norris LondonSage pp254-2794 Blumler, Jay G. and Denis McQuail. 1968. Television in Politics Its Uses and Influence. London Faber Faber.n.p5 Norris et al .1999 Norris and Sanders 2000 pp 110-1206 Bonham, J. (1954), The Middle Class Vote (London Faber)pp 56-627 Kaid, Lynda Lee and John C. Tedesco. 1993. A comparison of political television advertising fromthe 1992 British and American campaigns. Informatologia 25(1-2) pp1-128 Butler, D. and Stokes, D (1974) Political Change in Britain(2nd. edition) pp 54-78(London Macmillan)9 Evans, G. Heath, A., and Payne, C. (1999), Class Labour as a Catch-All Party?n.pNorris, P. (eds.), Critical Elections British Parties and Voters in Long-Term Perspective (LondonSage)n.p10 Seyd, P. P. Whiteley (2002) New Labours Grass Roots The Transformation of Labour Party Membership, Houndmills Palgrave Macmillan pp.10 38