ABSTRACT
The most important ‘mediating’ agency in any democracy has to be the mass media: the press, radio, television plus the vital impact of the ‘new’ media spawned by Internet and digital revolution. This is the means whereby government learns about voters and citizens learn about their government. Britain has a wide range of media outlets, each with distinctive histories. Broadcasting is still the key medium when it comes to transmitting political messages, although social media are catching up fast. Radio was used by Adolf Hitler to great effect during his rise to power. An influential critique of the media was made in What the Media Are Doing to Our Politics, by John Lloyd, who has worked on a number of broadsheet newspapers. His argument is that the media have ‘Decided that politics is a dirty game, played by devious people who tell an essentially false narrative about the world and thus deceive the British people.
