ABSTRACT
Broadcasting and the press are in the news. Mrs Thatcher’s media campaign is widely believed to have contributed to the 1983 Conservative victory; Labour, on the other hand, is unhappy about what it sees as bias in reporting, while the Alliance first basked in the overwhelmingly favourable media attention it received, then diminished in influence and authority when it moved out of the limelight. As a result the political role of the media has never been more contentious or had a greater prominence in British political life, while the miners’ strike of 1984-85 has once again highlighted the directly political dangers and possibilities of media manipulation.
