Is this what doctors mean when they tell us too much exposure to The Sun can be a dangerous thing? A recent study which looks into one of the biggest organised boycotts of a media organisation has drawn some startling conclusions.
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Not reading The Sun ‘makes people more left-wing’ – who knew!
Lucas Paulo da Silva, of Trinity College Dublin, published his findings earlier this year. Within the last few days, he has discussed some of the bottom-line conclusions in The Conversation. His study draws from more than 12,000 respondents, with data spanning over a 20-year period.
He has found that people in Liverpool now tend to be largely left-leaning, as a direct result of them shutting out The Sun. The tabloid infamously published a set of grotesque and ultimately false headlines about Liverpool fans in the wake of the 1989 Hillsbrough tragedy.
Liverpool boycott of The Sun leads to shift in political views
Da Silva’s research does also account for other political facets that particularly affected Merseyside towards the end of the 20th century, but even with these weighted considerations, the essential ‘ban’ placed on The Sun has been identified as an influential aspect behind political beliefs.
“I sought to examine how the longstanding boycott of the right-wing tabloid the Sun in Liverpool affected people’s political attitudes up to 2004. I found that The Sun – and its removal from the media landscape in Liverpool – held considerable sway.”
The results indicate to me that these shifts in political attitudes began during the boycott, rather than before. Surveys also show that people in Liverpool who had previously bought the right-wing Sun, often replaced it with more neutral or left-wing newspapers.” | Lucas Paulo da Silva
‘Perceptions of the Labour Party became less extreme’ – study
The Sun is the most popular tabloid newspaper in the UK, and it has been credited as influencing political opinion among working class voters. Da Silva notes that the media has a major influence in how people perceive a party’s policy positions – often misrepresenting what they do and don’t stand for.
“The boycott may have caused The Sun’s previous audience in Liverpool to perceive the Labour party as less ‘extreme’. The period also saw those former Sun readers in the city adopt more opinions traditionally regarded as left wing, including support for increasing the power of trade unions.”
“Support for the Labour party increased among the Sun’s former core audience in Liverpool. These shifts happened from the beginning of the boycott in 1989 until 1996 (before The Sun endorsed Labour), and continued until at least 2004.” | Lucas Paulo da Silva