The Politician, the Press and the Public: How Politicians’ Perceptions of the Media Shape UK Aid Allocations

Clist, Paul and Scott, Martin (2026) The Politician, the Press and the Public: How Politicians’ Perceptions of the Media Shape UK Aid Allocations. World Development. ISSN 0305-750X (In Press)

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Abstract

This paper examines politicians’ attitudes and beliefs about the press, their potential role in shaping aid policy and how these views differ from the public’s. We address these questions using survey data from 107 UK MPs and 2,047 members of the UK public. We find a positive association between MPs’ beliefs that the news media influence public opinion, reflect public opinion, and are central to a political career- and a belief that the news media should influence aid policy. This suggests that politicians’ attitudes and beliefs about the media can play a role in shaping aid policy. We also find that MPs are significantly more likely to think that the media influences public attitudes towards aid spending than the public. This suggests that politicians could potentially be overweighting news coverage when making decisions about aid spending. Overall, these findings help fill an important gap in our understanding of what happens ‘upstream’ of aid allocations and adds further nuance to our understanding of the media’s political effects.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data Availability: Raw data and code is available (Authors, 2026).
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development)
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Media Equality Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Cultural Politics, Communications & Media Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > The State, Governance and Conflict Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Impact Evaluation Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Behavioural and Experimental Development Economics Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Sciences
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	16 Apr 2026 12:34
Last Modified:	16 Apr 2026 12:34
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/102788
DOI:	issn:0305-750X

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