Modern Constituency Electioneering: Local Campaigning in the 1992 General Election by David Denver & Gordon Hands

Author:David Denver & Gordon Hands [Denver, David & Hands, Gordon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781135221621
Google: Kc-2AQAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 20846422
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1997-04-24T00:00:00+00:00

The Local Press

There is no doubt that the national press still plays an important and distinctive role in election campaigns. As Brian MacArthur points out, Although newspapers have now given way to television as overwhelmingly the main medium of news, debate and opinion ... it is newspapers that create the issues as much as the parties, newspapers which define the daily agenda for the party press conferences and radio and television phone-ins, newspapers which legitimize the questions that broadcasters, bound by strict obligations of impartiality, are set free to explore' (1989: 197). National newspapers are active participants in general election campaigns. Indeed, the campaign as observed by the electorate may be seen as a three-way dialogue between political leaders, television and the press. In the case of the quality papers the dialogue is in general fairly detailed and reasoned; in the case of the tabloids it might be better described as a slanging match rather than a dialogue. But it cannot be denied that the press's role is of great importance.

In addition to national newspapers, however, Britain is covered by an extensive network of local papers. According to figures presented by Franklin and Murphy (1991; 5-6) there were 845 regional and local paid-for newspapers in Britain in 1987, with a combined circulation of around 23 million. Moreover, there were also 814 free newspapers with a total circulation of 37 million. As Franklin and Murphy point out, these figures include 'a phenomenal diversity of newspapers, reflecting differences in the size of circulation area, frequency of publication, price, focus of contents on national, regional or local affairs, size and number of published pages' (p. 3). Furthermore, polls indicate that local papers are by far the most frequently cited source of local news (p. 7). The local press is, then, a potentially important medium of political communication which could add to the volume and variety of information transmitted to the electorate during election campaigns. It is worth considering whether local papers play a role in local campaigns corresponding to that played by the national press. Do they provide electors with lively, in-depth coverage of the election at local level? Do they raise and pursue local issues? Do they indulge in the kind of brazen partisanship which is typical of the national tabloids? Are voters' perceptions of candidates and the constituency campaign likely to be affected by the reporting of local newspapers?

Some work has been carried out on these questions. Bochel and Denver (1977) undertook a content analysis of weekly Scottish local newspapers during the February 1974 general election campaign. They found that editorials concerned with the election were either absent or neutral, that there was a reasonable balance between the major parties in the amount of coverage received, that minor parties suffered less from poor exposure than in the national media, and that there was a tendency for incumbents to get more coverage than other candidates. They also reported that the parties extensively used paid advertising in the local press to get their messages across.

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