Newsletters

Zurich, 28.04.2010. British TV news has now adjusted to the surprising ascent of Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg in the first TV debate, which took place on April 15th. Latest media data from the campaign monitor of the research institute Media Tenor International show, that the euphoric tone of reporting on Nick Clegg has given way to a more balanced coverage.
“No one had Clegg on his list before the TV debate, because the Lib Dems hardly made it into the national news, as journalists showed no interest in an opposition party without a credible chance to gain a significant share of the vote”, explains Roland Schatz, founder and President of Media Tenor International. “This has changed, but now the rules of the game are changing as well.” Not only are the opponents starting to focus their attacks on the new enemy, but journalists are taking a closer look at the political positions and the personality of the Lib Dem leader.
For the whole period from early April – beginning one week before the first debate – until the 26th, Nick Clegg received the highest share of coverage of the three contenders. “After the first debate and around the second debate, BBC and ITV news focused strongly on the performance of Nicholas Clegg, but a the same time his rating dropped from +60% to a moderate +20%”, says Dr. Christian Kolmer, head of political analysis at Media Tenor. Allegations of accounting irregularities, which go down especially bad with the public before the background of the expenses scandal hit Clegg´s image on the 26th.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has fared worst after the second TV debate and the Labour Party is now trailing the other two big parties with only 27% intending to vote for the party. “As the second debate did not change the picture as markedly as the first one, we do not expect the last debate to make a big difference”, concludes Dr. Kolmer. “As the journalists and the public have become accustomed to the personality and the politics of the Lib Dem leader, he has lost somewhat of the charm of the outsider and the cynical view of politicians that has characterized public opinion over the last months.”

With awareness now rather evenly split among the contenders and the tone of coverage becoming more balanced for Nick Clegg, a hung Parliament now seems more probable than ever.

Media Tenor International, the Zurich-based research institute has been analyzing British TV news since 2001. For this analysis a total of 16,108 statements about the three party leaders has been analyzed for the period from 28.02.-26.04 in BBC One 10 News, ITV 10 News and BBC Two Newsnight.
All coding is conducted by trained human coders. Average inter-coder reliability amounted to 87% in Q4/2009.

<< back <<

Please login to get more in pdf