AT the Labour Party conference in Liverpool this week Media North (previously the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom) will be calling on the next Labour government to set out plans for media reform and to push the issue up the agenda within the Labour Party.

Media North argue it is time for Labour to recognise the sector we call “the media” includes not just newspapers, magazines and traditional broadcasters but involves the rapidly expanding digital media — including content providers, the use of artificial intelligence to produce content, the peddling of “fake news” (which acts as an echo chamber) and potential mergers in the telecoms and communications sector such as the proposed merger of Vodaphone and Three giving control to the Chinese CK Group, owner of Three which has links to the Chinese government and the Conservative Party.

Fewer people are now directly dependent on reading the mainstream media to obtain news and information. Sales of national and regional titles continue to fall as more people rely on reading news and opinion from content providers who provide click-bait stories designed to find their way online and increasingly via podcasts — some of which are excellent — but some of which are increasingly dominated by right-wing ideologues.