Propaganda and politics
BREXIT, TRUMP AND THE MEDIA Edited by John Mair, Tor Clark, Neil Fowler, Raymond Snoddy and Richard Tait Abramis, £19.95
JUNE 23, 2016, November 8, 2016, and June 8, 2017, are three dates that have already gone down in the political history books. The EU referendum result, the election of Donald Trump and the denial of Theresa May’s seemingly surefire parliamentary majority were all events that defied the pundits and the bookmakers. What on earth was going on?
Brexit, Trump And The Media (which, despite the title, includes some analysis of the 2017 election) is a wide-ranging discussion of the role that television, newspapers and other news outlets played in influencing these events.
It’s a series of short essays, compiled and edited by a group of professors and former journalists, that you’re more likely to find in a university library than at a book club. Yet one does not have to be a fellow of All Souls to find it enjoyable and informative. One of the problems with academic analysis of the media is that the professors responsible come up with all sorts of theories but have little understanding of how a newspaper or TV programme is put together. So it seems at times here. One essay claims that the tabloid press influenced debate by focusing on battles between politicians while sidelining “the voice of experts and academics”.
I don’t wish to disregard the research completely but it is ridiculous that the authors do not mention that this mostly happened not as part of a deliberate attempt to influence readers but because ministers tearing strips off each other is inherently more interesting than a dry report from an unknown academic.
It is, therefore, one of the strengths of this book that it tends to rely more on the people who make and influence the news than on the academics who study it from afar. Chapters by Nigel Farage, Vote Leave chief Matthew Elliott and Leave. EU spin doctor Andy Wigmore bring knowledge from the campaigns side.
There is a chapter by Daily Express editor Hugh Whittow, who explains how this newspaper’s historic crusade laid the groundwork for the broader campaign to quit the EU. Other figures from ITV, Channel 4, the BBC, The Times, the Guardian and others also lend an insight so often lacking in conventional media analysis.
All told, it is an interesting collection of essays. For the casual reader, it would have benefited from more input from working journalists and less from academics. But for anybody with an interest in how our politics plays out in the media, there are plenty of gems.