Political Communication in Britain

Polling, Campaigning and Media in the 2015 General Election

Dominic Wring, Roger Mortimore, Simon Atkinson, Dominic Wring, Roger Mortimore, Simon Atkinson

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9783319409337
• eBook ISBN:
  9783319409344
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Democracy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book offers a unique exploration of the 2015 General Election from the perspectives of those most intimately involved as strategists, journalists and analysts. It features contributions from the rival parties, news and polling organizations as well as academic experts who examine all aspects of the campaign.  A common theme that emerges is the increasing complexity of the democratic process given the development of a more multifaceted party system and a growing fragmentation in mass media audiences. The UK electoral landscape has changed: in 2015 six parties received more than a million votes whereas in the 2010 General Election it was only three. This book provides invaluable insights into contemporary British politics through analysis of an election whose outcome, an outright Conservative victory, surprised many commentators. It will appeal to students and scholars in the fields of electoral politics and media and communication, as well as to practitioners and the wider reader interested in British general elections.

Table of contents

• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Notes on Contributors
• List of Abbreviations
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Chapter 1: Foreword
• Chapter 2: Introduction
• Part I: Part I: Polling
• Chapter 3: The Polls and Their Context
• Chapter 4: The Performance of the Polls
• Chapter 5: The Election in Scotland
• Chapter 6: Outside the Marginals: Constituency and Regional Polling at the 2015 General Elections
• Chapter 7: What the Polls Polled: Towards a Political Economy of British Election Polls
• Part II: Campaigns
• Chapter 8: An Interview with Jeremy Sinclair
• Chapter 9: The Conservative Campaign
• Chapter 10: The Labour Campaign
• Chapter 11: The SNP Campaign
• Chapter 12: Chill Wind: The Liberal Democrat Campaign
• Chapter 13: A Polite Insurgency: The UKIP Campaign
• Chapter 14: For the Common Good: The Green Party’s 2015 General Election Campaign
• Part III: Media
• Chapter 15: The Media Campaign: The Issues and Personalities Who Defined the Election
• Broadcasting
• Chapter 16: The Broadcast Journalist’s View
• Chapter 17: Regulating Broadcasting During the 2015 General Election: The Ofcom Perspective
• Chapter 18: Election Debates: The Less Than Smooth Path to TV’s Big Campaign Events
• Chapter 19: The Election Debates in 2015: The View from the Living Room
• Print and Social Media
• Chapter 20: Reporting the Election
• Chapter 21: Pink Buses, Leaders’ Wives and “The Most Dangerous Woman in Britain”: Women, the Press and Politics in the 2015 Election
• Chapter 22: Othering Ed: Newspaper Coverage of Miliband and the Election
• Chapter 23: The Social Media Campaign: Mobilisation and Persuasion
• Chapter 24: #GE2015: The General Election on Twitter
• Index