Past Exam Questions

1. Past Exam Questions • “Mass media coverage can make or break a campaign.” Assess this statement with reference to any campaign designed to influence political decision making. • Referring to a campaign you know, evaluate the role of the media in contributing to its success or failure. • “The media is too powerful in setting the political agenda in the United Kingdom”. Evaluate this campaign using examples.

2. Learning Objectives • To define the mass media • To explore the different types of media • To evaluate the power of the mass media

3. What is the mass media? • Television news • Radio • Newspapers • Internet • Magazines

4. The Daily Star Front Page

5. At least three people have been killed in a suicide attack on a bakery in the popular Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat The Times Front Page

6. Broadsheets The Guardian The Telegraph The Financial Times The Times The Independent Tabloids The Sun The Mirror The Daily Star The Express The Mail Tabloids v Broadsheets

7. The power of the media

8. Consensual Model • The media offer a narrow range of opinion on political issues. • The media is dominated by middle aged, middle class, Southern males. • There is a bias in the content of the media. • There is a cosy union between journalists, reporters and policy makers. • The media reflect the dominant groups interests when it comes to politics. • Those who own the media have close ties to the Government.

9. Pluralist Model • There is a balance in reporting of events in the media. • The media reflect a variety of views. • Newspapers are biased but newspapers have different views so there is a balance. • Television and radio must be balanced at election time. • The internet allows access to a range of opinions. • The media is a business and has to sell newspapers. Appealing to the public is more important than anything else.

10. Gun Control NetworkA media driven campaign AIMS • Minimum age of 18 for the ownership, use and possession of all guns. • Ban on the sale, manufacture and import of all imitation guns and their possession in a public place. • Certification of all deactivated weapons. • Inclusion of airguns in certification system. • One certification system for all legal weapons i.e. rifles, shotguns, airguns. • Multi-shot rifles and shotguns to be banned. • Practical or Combat shooting or any other shooting practice which involves the simulation of real life situations and/or the use of human shaped targets to be banned.

11. Dunblane • The Gun Control Network was established in the wake of the horrific murders in Dunblane. It was set up by a group that included academics, lawyers and the parents of victims killed in Hungerford and Dunblane

12. Achievements see www.gun-control-network.org • In February 1997 John Major’s Conservative government introduced legislation to ban handguns over .22 calibre and in November 1997, the new Labour government extended the ban to cover all handguns. Internet Gun Sales • GCN members monitor the advertising and sale of guns on the internet, an insufficiently regulated loophole through which weapons can easily fall into the wrong hands.  GCN alerted e-Bay to the fact that despite company policy gun sales were taking place through its auction site.  Subsequent discussions with e-Bay staff have ensured that the company has improved its policing procedures and the virtual elimination of all appearances of guns for sale on its site. Controls over Airgun Sales • Along with other campaigners GCN members have been lobbying the Government to place more restrictions on the availability and use of air weapons.  The Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 now requires that the purchase of all airguns must be through registered dealers.