Academics from the University’s Centre for Research in Communication and Culture have conducted news audits for every General Election since 1992.
The audit for 2019 is concentrating on the main news bulletins on BBC1, ITV, C4, C5 and Sky and all the main daily national newspapers. It will also collect data from the Twitter accounts of the main political parties.
Coverage is analysed weekly, and the first of four reports is due to be released tomorrow (Friday 15 November).
The reports provide commentary about the week’s coverage and systematic measurements of which politicians and parties received the most coverage, the proportion of negative and positive coverage of candidates and parties, which issues received greatest prominence and the amount of coverage given to the election.
Unique to the Loughborough study is the historical comparative data available, going back to 1992, which will allow the research team to identify changes and continuities in election reporting.
The audit is being led by Professors David Deacon and Dominic Wring from the School of Social Sciences and Humanities.
The team’s methodology, full weekly reports (as they become available) and further analysis can be found at the University’s General Election 2019 web page.