Primacy, the law ofA B C D E F G H IJKL M N O P R S T U VXYZWusually seek formal political office, although
some pressure groups do sponsor elected
individuals. Pressure groups can be usefully
divided into two main types: those which act to
protect their members’ interests, and those that
are concerned to promote a cause which they
believe will be in the general interests of society.
Pressure groups vary not only in the focus
of their concern, but also more crucially in the
degree of influence they have. In some cases
a government may consult relevant pressure
groups before introducing or amending legisla-
tion or policies, and some groups enjoy relatively
easy access to government.
According to Wyn Grant in Pressure Groups,
Politics and Democracy in Britain (Harvester
Wheatsheaf, 2000), pressure groups involved in
lobbying activities can be divided into Insider
and Outsider groups depending on their relative
ease of access to government. An example of an
Insider group would be the Confederation of
British Industry, whereas the National Union
of Students could be considered as an Outsider
group. Insider groups usually have better access
because they have expertise, influence and
resources valued by a government and thus the
groups are seen as potentially useful contribu-
tors to that government’s activities. As David
Miller and William Dinan warn in a A Century
of Spin (Pluto Press, 2008), such access may,
however, lead to undue infl uence and corrup-
tion. With less access, Outsider groups are more
likely to use public appeals and protest in order
to put pressure on those in power.
To be successful, pressure groups need
well-planned strategies of communication, or
campaigns. Th e methods used vary but include
letter-writing, gaining interviews on local or
national radio, using radio ‘phone-in’ slots,
the distribution of literature, advertisements,
demonstrations and gaining television cover-
age. Th e internet has proved a key means of
disseminating information by pressure groups. Its
capacity for interactivity in particular has facili-
tated planning and organization across national
borders, often bypassing traditional channels of
mass communication. See lobbying.
▶Spinwatch: http://www.spinwatch.org.
Primacy, the law of Th e view that whichever
side of a case or argument is presented first
will have greater impact on an audience than
anything which follows. F.H. Lund is considered
to have been the first to advance this theory
in ‘Th e psychology of belief ’ in the Journal of
Abnormal and Social Psychology (1925). Th ere
are those, however, who espouse the law ofsystem: the main players; media control;
newspapers, origins. See also topic guide
under media history.
▶Roy Greenslade, Maxwell’s Fall (Simon & Schuster,
1992); Nicholas Coleridge, Paper Tigers (Heinemann,
1993); Tom Bowyer, Maxwell: The Final Verdict
(HarperCollins, 1996); Gillian Doyle, Media Owner-
ship: Concentration, Convergence and Public Policy
(Sage, 2002); James Curran and Jean Seaton, Power
Without Responsibility: Press, Broadcasting and the
Internet (Routledge, 7th edition, 2010).
Press commissions See topic guide under
commissions, committees, legislation.
Press Complaints Commission (UK) Body
created by the UK newspaper industry, begin-
ning its duties on 1 January 1991, and replacing
the Press Council – Lord McGregor being
appointed the Commission’s fi rst chairman. Th e
PCC operates on the basis of a Code of Practice,
the ‘five commandments’ of which concern
privacy, opportunity for reply, prompt correc-
tion and appropriate prominence, the conduct of
journalists and the treatment of race. Th e Code
warns newspapers against publishing ‘inac-
curate, misleading or distorting material’ as well
as recommending them ‘to distinguish clearly
between comment, conjecture and fact’.
The PCC’s effectiveness as an independent
regulator of the press has been subject to ongo-
ing criticism; arguably its biggest failure relates
to the phone-hacking scandal in 2011 involving
news corp’s News of the World. Th e PCC, in
face of revelations by the Guardian, insisted that
there was insuffi cient evidence to take action. A
scandal that quickly became an issue of national
and international concern led the leader of the
UK Labour opposition, Ed Miliband, to call the
PCC a ‘toothless poodle’.
Public and parliamentary outrage at the NoW’s
systemic phone-hacking (see journalism:
phone-hacking) and the paper’s dramatic
closure in July 2011 led to the establishment
by Prime Minister David Cameron of a public
inquiry to be headed by Lord Justice Leveson,
part of whose remit would be an investigation
into press and broadcasting regulation. The
future of a watchdog created and funded by the
industry it was supposed to watch over was in
the balance. See calcutt committee reports
on privacy and related matters, 1990 and
1993; ofcom: office of communications
(uk).
Pressure groups Also known as interest groups
or lobbies, pressure groups aim to influence
central and local government and its actions
in certain, limited areas of policy. Th ey do not