Category Archives: Essay

Media Plurality And The Effect Does It Have On The UK’s Democratic Health

Using the theoretical framework of Lukes’ three faces of power, this essay will discuss the media’s plurality in the United Kingdom (UK). This response will determine the affect media practice, both from a pluralistic point of view and government approval have an effect of the democratic health of the country. Specifically, the effective participation, enlightened understanding and control of the agenda clauses of Dahl’s theory will be applied throughout the essay to see how media plurality should in theory enhance a thriving democracy, but in reality and practice, fails democracy in the UK. The essay will effectively be split into three parts, using Lukes’ three faces of power, explicitly, the issue method, setting the agenda and, manipulating the view of others theories will be applied

The first section will focus on the issue method and winning the argument and will discuss Continue reading Media Plurality And The Effect Does It Have On The UK’s Democratic Health

A Case Study Of Labour Party Communication From 1992 To 1997

With a combined application of empirical evidence, academic research and opinion, this essay will assess the impact that the popular printed press had on policy and communication, focusing on not only the surprise outcome of the 1992 election, but also the ultimately successful electoral strategy of the Labour Party from 1992 to 1997. It will also explore elements of historical comparison and contrast.

Both the political landscape and the printed media coverage for the 1964 election campaign and its 1992 counterpart are remarkably similar; the outcomes, however, reveal a stark contrast. It is this fascinating juxtaposition between the two respective results which provides the spark for this exploration, including how it potentially hardened the future Labour leadership’s resolve to court a previously hostile media organ, in glaring contrast to the previous incumbent’s ambivalence. The 1997 campaign’s success was achieved in no small part through  political courtship (and subsequent mutual support) of Rupert Murdoch, following Blair’s ascension to the leadership of the Labour Party in the aftermath of John Smith’s untimely passing in 1994. Blair was also assisted by the implosion of the Conservative party under John Major’s leadership Continue reading A Case Study Of Labour Party Communication From 1992 To 1997

The Challenge That Citizen Journalism Presents To The Future Of Commercially Driven Journalism

This essay will discuss the challenges that the medium of commercially driven journalism faces in the future. It will present the evolution and practices of both professional journalism and how it has become entwined with citizen journalism. The essay will also juxtapose the historical context with the contemporary relevance of citizen journalism and how commercially driven journalism will have to find a way of accommodating the practices of citizen journalism, whilst at the same time, staying commercially viable and of a quality and integrity that the medium has traditionally strived for.

There is a natural suspicion of time-served journalists to the ever-expanding genre of citizen journalism. Continue reading The Challenge That Citizen Journalism Presents To The Future Of Commercially Driven Journalism

The Differences Between Stories That Are In The Public Interest And Those That Are Of Interest To The Public

This essay will compare, contrast and discuss the differences between public interest journalism and journalism that is of interest to the public. The essay will attempt to decipher where the lines of the two aforementioned concepts become opaque whilst at the same time, acknowledging the mutual interest of the necessity to public knowledge and gratuitous salacity.

Journalism that is in the public interest is the fundamental backbone to a functioning democracy. In theory, Continue reading The Differences Between Stories That Are In The Public Interest And Those That Are Of Interest To The Public