Public opinion, party politics, policy, and immigration news in the United Kingdom

Working paper

This paper explores the relationship between public pressures and immigration policy. Using agenda-setting theory as a foundation, it investigates links between news coverage of immigration issues, public opinion, political party positions, and Parliamentary actions on immigration policy in the UK between 1990 and 2010. It finds strong relations among news, opinion, and party attention, but weak relations between those factors and policy enactment. It also shows that no single party or newspapers with particular political leanings can be held responsible for the rising interest in immigration and policy enactment in the past two decades. It concludes that the simple claim that public pressure produces policy (restrictive or otherwise) is not a robust explanation of the policy dynamics and that other factors and dynamics must play significant intervening roles.

Authors: Picard, R

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Not peer reviewed
• Publisher: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
• Publication date: 2014-01-01
• Edition: Publisher's version
• Language: English
• Keywords: Framing; Agenda setting; Migration; Media effects; Policy
• Subjects: Journalism (political science); News media,journalism,publishing; Migration; Media and Public Policy