Weekly News (11/04/2016)
Sunday, April 17, 2016I was first made aware of this story on 9th April after I saw posts on Facebook that outlined the mass protests in London prompting David Cameron's resignation after the revelation that he profited from his father's offshore investment fund.
The posts discussed the fact that the protests were happening yet were receiving no mainstream media attention, similar to the events following the 2015 General Election when another anti-austerity - or "anti-Tory" - protest was greeted with a media blackout until days after the event had began. Yesterday (16th April) was the first I heard of the protests in mainstream media: see here, here and here, as examples.
The concept of a mainstream media blackout raises two issues:
- Censorship. Mainstream media may be censoring information such as this from the public in hope that it will not add unrest to the situation; fuel to the fire.
- Political Bias (and Ownership). It is also a key example of political bias and ownership of the media. For example, the BBC is considered to be an unbiased source yet it has been one of the last mainstream media channels to cover the protests in depth (with the BBC releasing a story that was hidden on it's website and did not make television news, consisting of just 67 words) - this is arguably because they are controlled by our Government and therefore must abide to what the Government want us to see, hear and know.
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