UK GENERAL ELECTION PRESS COVERAGE

UK GENERAL
ELECTION
PRESS COVERAGE
PARTY COVERAGE
Behind the leaders, the race is very tight. The Scottish National
Party has surged into third place in terms of front page mentions in
the U.K. press, punching far above its weight compared to the polls.
The SNP is jockeying with UKIP and the Liberal Democrats for a
larger share of the front page press coverage. Will Nicola
Sturgeon’s SNP continue to dominate? Is being out of the news
good news for Nick Clegg? Has Nigel Farage established his party
more firmly in the mainstream media debate? And will that be
reflected on May 7?
We’ve used Factiva, the world’s
leading news database, to
examine press coverage of the
U.K. election over the last month.*
While opinion polls largely show
the Conservative and Labour
parties running neck-and-neck,
when it comes to the press, we can
see winners and losers in the
coverage war.
Cameron
We tracked all coverage (positive, negative, neutral) of the main
parties on the front pages of the major U.K. newspapers.* The
results show that Labour is mentioned far more times on the front
page than the Conservative party.
Miliband
Sturgeon
Farage
33%
37%
Clegg
11%
12%
7%
40%
25%
Labour
15%
12%
Conservative
SNP
UKIP
8%
Lib Dem
LEADER COVERAGE
It’s a different story when it comes to the leaders. David Cameron
is the most mentioned party leader on the front pages—possibly
a result of also being the prime minister. Ed Miliband is behind in
second place. Even further behind are Nicola Sturgeon and Nigel
Farage who are vying for third place, while Nick Clegg languishes
in fifth place.
BREXIT
We then scrutinized all the main media for mentions of “Brexit”
since it started cropping up in 2013. It’s been on the rise since
early 2014, but there was a real surge in mentions in the second
half of March. Just a blip? Or is this a word we’re going to hear
much more in the months ahead?
2013
April–December
*National and major regional UK publications,
between March 19 2015 and April 21 2015.
2014
January–December
2015
January-April