Newspapers do have a limited reach, but the people most likely to read them are those that were brought up with the daily newspaper being their main source of information- the elderly.
Is it a coincidence that the majority of the elderly statistically buy right wing newspapers and vote for the Tories?
And that they are the age group most likely to vote at every election?
I don’t think so.
If you spend your life reading a paper that continually says Tories good, Labour bad, AND you have no other way of refuting what is said, I think it is fair to say that the readership will become indoctrinated into believing what they read.
But this statement ignores that they are "co-incidentally" the most likely to religiously watch the news on the TV at 6pm or 10pm etc. So the "have no other way of refuting what is said" does not apply because while they read in the morning whatever their paper says they then get in their evening sit down to the news' constant refutation. "BBC reality check."
The internet has broken, to an extent, the hold the newspapers have, especially on young people who don’t buy papers as often, if at all, as the previous generations. People reading the internet now have different viewpoints, PLUS videos, which enables them to build a more balanced view.
I disagree. The internet is what is giving these newspapers a voice. Their readerships are very low and most people would not read their stories if they weren't shared constantly (mostly by opposing viewpoints.)
My generation is probably the last one which was brought up with a daily newspaper, but our access to the internet means that we can take what is written at face value, should we want to, of course. It might already be too late, for those that have bought into the right wing diatribe to accept a view different to what they read for 30 years or so.
Yes I am probably in the same generation that was brought up with a "daily newspaper" however newspaper's reach these days is much higher than it was when it was just a piece of paper. These days it is everywhere. Both left and right wing promoting what they agree and disagree with. The internet is used much more by left leaning folks though and it is they that are continuing the "influence" of what they call "right wing press" by continually sharing it around because they want their followers to jump up and down about what it says.
I don't agree at all about the face value comment. There is a "celebration" on right wing grass roots US based forums of the Trump campaign "using the tactics of the left against them" and while a lot of the stuff is not nice they are right. The fake news bit has been around for ages.
Take today for example where people's vote have taken down one of their videos. It focused on someone who was a leaver that had changed his mind.........problem being that Guido (nasty right wing Guido) investigated a bit and found out that this guy was vociferously remain pre and post the referendum. The guy was not a leaver. Fake news. Both sides are at this. Not a left or right thing but like the use of stats we have gone through today both sides can present the same data but using different criteria or timings and show "with facts" whatever supports their argument. And yes both sides can just make stuff up, like Ocasio Cortez with her Pentagon spending argument. I am not doing a "they are the liars" bit. Your "right wing diatribe" is actually a mirror of the other side as there is also a "left wing diatribe." There is not a lot of actual balanced stuff around anymore. Everything has become staunchly one sided including the TV, including the BBC as TV is for some reason assuming that they have to compete with the internet and TV news nowadays is not a lot more than twitter on a big screen.
And if you really want to dispute how powerful papers are, in influencing voters, just go back to the days when Murdoch switched allegiance from the Tories to Tony Bliar and Labour won by a landslide.
Since he switched back to the Tories, he has poor people voting for their own destruction, in voting for the Tories and giving them free reign to introduce policies that are harmful to them.
Apart from the fact that not many had internet in 1997 let alone social media being a thing as behemoths like twitter and facebook I think you make a false correlation here.
Murdoch is not stupid but he did not win those elections. He backed a winner. He knew the Tories were done and switched, he didn't influence that switch. And when he knew Labour were done he switched again. He didn't win Cameron that "hung parliament." More like a musician that changes to a new style when they think their old style is about to go out of fashion.
Are Madonna and Kylie

masters at "re-inventing" themselves?............or do they just hear the new music and sell out each time becoming actors and bandwagon jumpers rather than innovators?
I think people (on both sides of the argument) want to believe the other side is just following some "ultra powerful" person or group rather than admit that progress has been made, more people can see the wood for the trees than before and that more people are nicer and more educated than before.
And because there is nothing they can trust* to be truly unbiased then they retreat into their echo chamber.
*If the BBC actually refuted direct "because of Brexit" claims with valid information then people might trust them but they don't. They are pushing the "slow growth" because of Brexit mantra when everyone can see from any other source that the UK had better growth than the other G7 countries in the eurozone and when it is claimed that Brexit has held us back people will quite rightly say
"but you told us that so much of our business was from Europe. How would we have achieved that extra 2% when the Eurozone has stalled?"
The vast amount of dishonesty has left people on all sides opposed because they can no longer trust anyone.