Media plurality is crucial for a healthy democracy, and vital for ensuring the public has access to a wide range of news and views from independent providers. When Media is used to give us our information on what is important and what ideology we should hold, it is right to consider the source of the Media you choose to consume.
70% of the UK national market is controlled by just three companies (News UK, Daily Mail and General Trust, and Trinity Mirror), with Rupert Murdoch’s News UK fully holding a third of the entire market share. These three companies hold right or left of centre political views and fund the current government’s or the oppositions’s political campaigns. Although political funding is open to scrutiny and by law has to be transparent what is less apparent is the news story that runs to fit the right/left of centre ideology of the newspaper owner.
When you read a story ask yourself some questions:
* is this truthful?
* is this well researched or filled with conjecture?
* are sources named or hidden?
* is the target of the negative story from a different background to the right of centre ideology being promoted?
* is the person being given a positive story right of centre and part of the status quo?
* does the story make it more or less likely that the current government will return to power?
* does the story promote any political party’s manifesto? Is the story propaganda?
* does the story go after tax avoidance by a corporation who advertise in the paper or after failings in a public service?
You may wish to do some research
Also, consider the Trinity Mirror group.
Are your thoughts truly your own or are you being manipulated by someone else’s agenda? Does the Media control you?
