Abstract
Voters rarely engage directly with political parties or candidates and are therefore reliant upon the media to act as a link between themselves and political parties. Whilst there is limited evidence to suggest the media is able to influence the outcome of elections, it is important in providing information and setting the political agenda. In this regard, we can see the media as advertising elections by offering (potential voters) information about who to (not) vote for and helping to establish the importance of the election/position(s)/institution(s) that the election pertains to. This chapter acknowledges that competing interests limit the coverage the printed media offer to elections and demonstrates that differences exist between the amount of coverage national and local papers offer to different elections.
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Notes
- 1.
Terms searched for “Police and Crime Commissioner Election OR PCC Election”, in UK newspapers, between 2 October and 30 October 2012.
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Kirkland, C. (2020). The Media. In: Classifying Elections in Britain. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32556-5_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32556-5_5
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