Tag Archives: phil cowley

Politicians are not mere pawns in the hands of journalists

By Mark Pack | Fri 15th June 2012 - 7:20 am

Understandably the Leveson Inquiry has concentrated on the misdeeds of journalists and the behaviour of newspaper owners. However, the appearance of a series of figures this week at Leveson could – indeed should – have highlighted how often the power lies with politicians, not the media. We had three figures appear who all, in their own very different ways, showed that despite all the talk of politicians been cowed by the media, it is far from uncommon for politicians to have far too much power over the media.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged gordon brown, john major, journalism, leveson inquiry, new statesman and nick clegg | 6 Comments

Running for office? What voters think of your income

By Mark Pack | Tue 24th April 2012 - 10:20 am

Welcome to the latest in our occasional series highlighting interesting findings from academic research. Today – how voters prefer people who earn less rather than more.

The findings come from research presenting the details of two fictional candidates to voters and asking them what they thought of each. Details of one of the fictional candidates were then altered to see how that changed the reaction of voters.

Here is what voters were initially told about that person:

John Burns is 48 years old, and was born and brought up in your area, before going to University to study for a degree in mathematics. …

Posted in What do the academics say? | Also tagged rosie campbell | 5 Comments

What do the academics say? The voters want local candidates

By Mark Pack | Sat 30th April 2011 - 8:56 am

Welcome to the latest in our occasional series highlighting interesting findings from academic research. Today – the repeated finding that voters like local candidates:

Surveys have consistently found ‘localness’ to be one of the main criteria voters say they want in an election candidate. In each of five surveys between 1983 and 2005, voters ranked ‘to be from the local area’ or ‘to have been brought up in the area he or she represents’ (the precise question wording differed from survey to survey) as either the most important or the second most important characteristic that they were looking for in their

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Posted in What do the academics say? | Also tagged featured and sarah childs | 12 Comments