New labor, old media

I considered some of the political, social and economic implications of the current ‘one-party’ political system that is in place in China. Whilst this was a discussion related to our module on ‘Contemporary issues in journalism’, it is a discussion that can be carried further explored on this blog and relates heavily to the area of new media. On the equivalent blog of this one at the University of Amsterdam, Roman Tol reported that the Chinese government intend to force bloggers from that country “to register with their genuine name. This way bloggers can be penalized when they don’t conform to the strict censorship laws.” Therefore, a blogger would not be able to use a pseudonym and would be extremely limited in what he or she can say. This has massive implications on internet freedom of speech, and internet governance in general, a topic which we can discuss further here.

However, and in doing so leaving the Chinese example aside, I wish to look at this from a different angle, and argue by using an example far closer to home that it is old media that can have a far more powerful influence over political and social organisation. In an essay last semester I argued that “the draw back with the internet (blog) lies largely with the fact that only a minority of people reach a large audience, with much content only reaching a niche audience.” Therefore, it seems the opinion of the blog does not have the ability to have a widespread political effect.

On Monday 05/02/07 BBC Radio 4 broadcast a documentary entitled ‘A Very Special Relationship’, on which Steve Richards outlined the extremely cosy relationship that the Labour party, and especially Tony Blair have enjoyed with News International. With contributions from Charles Clark, Andrew Neil and David Blunkett, Richards showed how Blair made a series of concessions to Rupert Murdoch, to particularly ensure the support of The Sun at the last three elections. Perhaps more interesting however was the assertion that Gordon Brown will have to rely on News International even further, if he is to sell himself to ‘Middle-England’ and retain power, given the view he has a much less charismatic personality than that which kept Blair going for so long. This concurs with Manuel Castell’s view that “Political competition increasingly revolves around the personalization of politics.”

A lot more could be written on this, but I wish to conclude by stating that Labour have over the past ten years has relied heavily on the support of The Sun, given its multi-million readership. Since 1997 and Labour’s landslide victory, the media landscape has greatly changed, but it seems that it will be the ‘old’ popular press that Labour will continue to look to to secure political control, and be much less concerned with the blogger, and their ability to have a tangible impact on the political spectrum.

When the documentary becomes available to listen to again online, I will post the relevant link.