Professor Steve Barnett, Professor of Communications, was quoted in an article about the political stance of newspapers.
Talking about how readers of the same newspaper in different regions have different political beliefs, Professor Barnett said: “What’s interesting is as the views of those different [regions] have diverged, the views being expressed at those newspapers which have their own editors, have also diverged.
“That’s partly because they are being driven by what they know are the views of their readers that buy their newspapers.”
Discussing the relationship between political influence of a newspaper on a population, he said: “I think the best you can say is that the relationship is reciprocal and that they will both try to reflect and to some extent influence their respective audiences.”