Marko Noppel FLGR.01.066 6.

December 2010

Are we corrupted by the newspapers or are the newspapers corrupted by us?

I read Where have all the readers gone? Popular newspapers and Britains political health by John Curtice and Ann Mair. They claim, that all the British newspapers influence numerous voters, but as the number of regular newspaper readers decreases mercilessly, the number of biased people is decreasing as well. A relation between the decrease of reading daily papers and trusting the politicians has been noted. I agree with the idea that more and more young people are becoming more far from reading daily newspapers, but I disagree with the statement, that Britains democracy might be healthier, if fewer people read daily newspapers. I wish to point out more aspects on above mentioned topic as a response to this article as follows. To begin with, the authors state that the times where people chose their daily paper according to their political views is coming to an end due to the fact that the younger readers have much more information channels available than a few decades ago. As far as I am concerned, the readers are still out there and are even hungrier for information, but as the choice of information sources has expanded rapidly, no-one can be expected to depend on a one newspapers side of the story any longer, because every newspaper represents the interests and views of its owner and hence it is difficult to take as an absolute truth. It seems to me, that the authors have had the same thoughts, as they write: A newspapers stance is most obviously revealed in its leader columns, but is certainly not confined to there. Its political outlook can also affect which stories are given prominence and how they are reported. , which is a stance I greatly appreciate. Although the article introduces the British newspapers as often regarded as a blot on the countrys political landscape and driving young people away from voting, I would like to say they should not be entirely viewed as such. On the other hand, the authors of the article vow and declare how British newspapers are biased towards certain parties as a rule. However, the elections are not won on the pages of papers. It is safe to state, that people who read daily quality newspapers, take their time with the points of their interest in politics, unlike the followers of possibly superficial media like internet and half-an-hour news programs, which have a narrow and facile scope. With the possible exception of the 1992 elections, media can not be viewed as the armed cavalry, which would give an unfair advantage to a

certain side. My opinion is that today one can not slander someone without the inevitable consequences after it, which may prove to be even more destructive than the original allegations. Court cases have been opened and won because of baseless indictments, followed by discredit of the offender in the public. By no means can the newspapers be viewed as unnecessary and even dangerous to unbiased outcome of the elections in a democratic country and society. All things considered, though, it seems to me that the fact the newspapers have lost a lot of their committed readership, has not happened due to the loss of interest for the events in politics and in the world generally. As the media is developing rapidly, people are free to make a final, unbiased decision themselves by collecting all the available information from different sources of information. I believe that this has even more to do with younger people, who are more accustomed to searching answers themselves and not to be satisfied with one side of the story. The quality newspapers are and always will be the place for in-depth analysis for those, who need details about why events happen and whats behind them. Only people, who take interest and find time to descend to particulars in the topics that matter, can make their own free decisions. If readers lose the interest on the economy, politics and are only curious about gossip, then the blot referred to in the introduction is not made by the newspapers, but rather the readership themselves, as it creates the demand for such trend to occur in the first place.