Report 4: 30 May – 26 June 2024
This is the fourth in a series of weekly reports from the Centre for Research in Communication and Culture, ÌìÌÃÊÓƵ on UK wide television and print media reporting of the 2024 UK General Election. These reports will be published weekly throughout the campaign.
Report authors
David Deacon, Jilly Kay, Brendan Lawson, Nathan Ritchie, David Smith, Dominic Wring.
Dr David Smith is Lecturer in Media and Communications, University of Leicester.
Introduction
This report examines:
- The visibility and quotation time of political parties in news reporting across the campaign so far.
- The most frequently reported campaigners over the past week.
- The dominant issues last week and throughout the campaign.
- The coverage of identity politics and ‘culture wars’.
- The naming of politicians and policies in news headlines.
- The positivity and negativity of press reporting of the main parties.
The results in this report are drawn from a detailed content analysis of election coverage produced on the weekdays (i.e. Monday to Friday inclusive) between 30 May and 26 June. The media sampled were:
Television: Channel 4, Channel 5, BBC1, ITV1, and Sky main evening bulletins.
Press: The Guardian, The I, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Financial Times, The Daily Mail, The Daily Express, The Mirror, The Sun, The Star
All election-related news items in the television programmes were analysed. For the press, all election news found on the front page, the first two pages of the domestic news section, the first two pages of any specialist election section and the page containing and facing the papers’ leader editorials were coded. Read more details on the methodology of the study. Intercoder reliability tests were conducted on all key variables and are ongoing.
Grateful thanks to our coding team: Hannah Bruce, Magnus Hamann, Alistair Kidd, Ella Muncie, Thomas Quinlan, Reuben Shapland, Benji Simpson, Mian Tiao, Roman Winkelhahn, and Caspar Wort.
Executive Summary
Issues
- ‘Standards, corruption, scandals and sleaze’ has usurped ‘Taxation’ as the second most covered issue in week 4. The betting scandal that has engulfed the Conservative Party (and to a lesser extent the Labour Party) has driven the coverage. TV has covered this issue much more than the press, propelling the issue up the overall campaign rankings to 3rd (ahead of key policy issues, such as economy and immigration)
- Coverage of issues associated with Minority groups (6th) has broken into the top 10 this week.
- The announcement of the Labour Party’s position on trans rights and JK Rowling’s criticism of the party have lent considerable impetus in this rise. Rowling was the 6th most prominent individual in all coverage this week.
- ‘Sex, gender, and Sexuality’ is the most prominent minority issue in this campaign, in contrast to the 2019 General Election where ‘Religious’ issues dominated this aspect of media debate.
- Despite its rise in wider public debate about identity politics, the term ‘woke’ has been used very infrequently by journalists or quoted news sources in the campaign so far.
Politicians
- Nigel Farage has confirmed his position as the clear alternative party voice to the two main contenders for the premiership. Despite criticism of his comments on Ukraine, coverage of Reform has not become more negative in aggregate terms.
- Ed Davey receives his highest ranking in this week’s Top 20.
- Just under a third of the Top 20 are women, slightly up on last week.
- Alister Jack’s debut appearance in the Top 20 reflects the way he has been drawn into the controversy over electoral gambling.
Parties
- There is a slight decrease in Reform UK’s TV presence (-2%) indicating lower levels of coverage in week 4.
- Despite this, Reform UK have had more newspaper presence than Lib Dems, SNP, Greens, Plaid Cymru combined during the campaign.
- The Conservatives have widened the gap over Labour in terms of TV speaking time since week three.
- For the first time during the campaign, the Liberal Democrats have overtaken Reform UK in TV speaking time.
News headlines
- Politicians and Parties are routinely name-checked more frequently than policy issues in election newspaper headlines, but this trend is more evident in this campaign compared with 2019.
- In 2024, press headlines have used the first names and surnames of the two main party leaders in roughly equal measure. This contrasts significantly with patterns found in 2019 Election, where the Conservative party leader was frequently referred to by his first name and the Labour leader almost exclusively by his surname.
Press evaluations
- Negative press coverage of the Conservatives has increased in week 4. What has ordinarily been one of the party's more reliable sources of support in previous elections appears to have now turned on them in this campaign.
- Negative aggregate coverage of Labour has also accumulated, although not to the same extent.
Section 1: Visibility and quotation time of political parties
Figure 1.1 compares the news presence of the political parties on TV news during the weekday coverage between 30 May – 26 June 2024. Figure 1.2 provides the same comparison for press coverage.
To be coded as ‘present’ a political representative needed to have an active role within the item. They could be counted even if they were not quoted, but there had to be a clear and substantial attribution to them of a speech act or action. Up to 5 politicians could be coded per item.
![Figure 1.1. News presence of parties in TV news (30 May to 26 June)](/media/media/campaigns/generalelection2024/charts/report4/report-4-figure-1_1.png)
Figure 1.1 table
Party | Leader (%) | Party (%) |
---|---|---|
Conservatives | 14% | 21% |
Labour | 13% | 19% |
Lib Dem | 3% | 4% |
Reform UK | 6% | 2% |
Green | 3% | 1% |
SNP | 3% | 2% |
Plaid Cymru | 2% | 1% |
Independents | - | 1% |
Other | - | 5% |
![Figure 1.2. News presence of parties in newspapers (30 May to 26 June)](/media/media/campaigns/generalelection2024/charts/report4/report-4-figure-1_2.png)
Figure 1.2 table
Party | Leader (%) | Party (%) |
---|---|---|
Conservatives | 14% | 28% |
Labour | 15% | 27% |
Lib Dem | 1% | 2% |
Reform UK | 6% | 3% |
Green | 0% | 0% |
SNP | 0% | 1% |
Plaid Cymru | 0% | 0% |
Independents | - | 1% |
Other | - | 0% |
Key Findings
- During the campaign so far the two main parties have received similar levels of coverage. The Conservatives are featured in slightly more TV news items (+4%) than Labour. The presence of both parties in newspaper coverage is nearly identical in percentage terms.
- Similarly, the two leaders have received comparable coverage, with Conservative leader Rishi Sunak appearing in slightly more TV coverage (+1 %) and Keir Starmer in slightly more newspaper coverage (+1 %)Both leaders account for a similar amount of coverage relative to their parties.
- Reform UK has received similar levels of coverage in newspapers (8%) and TV (9%). The party’s leader, Nigel Farage, accounts for the majority of Reform UK’s coverage. However, there is a slight decrease in Reform UK’s TV presence (-2%) indicating lower levels of presence in week 4.
- The Liberal Democrats have been present in 7% of TV news, making them the fourth largest party overall in terms of coverage. This level of TV presence has remained relatively fixed throughout the campaign.
- Smaller parties have received limited newspaper coverage, similar to previous weeks. The Greens, SNP, and Plaid Cymru have negligible press coverage overall. Collectively, their press coverage, along with the Lib Dems, is less than that of Reform UK.
Figures 1.3 and Figure 1.4 compare the news access of the political parties and their leaders by measuring the amount of direct quotation of politicians in coverage (for TV this was measured in seconds, for newspaper coverage this was measured in words).
![Figure 1.3. News access of parties measured by direct quotation (TV News: 30 May to 26 June)](/media/media/campaigns/generalelection2024/charts/report4/report-4-figure-1_3.png)
Figure 1.3 table
Party | Leader (secs) | Party (secs) |
---|---|---|
Conservatives | 2879 | 6767 |
Labour | 2756 | 4827 |
Lib Dem | 1869 | 332 |
Reform UK | 1353 | 194 |
Green | 1164 | 167 |
SNP | 1307 | 202 |
Plaid Cymru | 801 | 56 |
Independents | 209 | |
Other | 995 |
![Figure 1.4. News access of parties measured by direct quotation (Press 30 May to 26 June)](/media/media/campaigns/generalelection2024/charts/report4/report-4-figure-1_4.png)
Figure 1.4 table
Party | Leader (words) | Party (words) |
---|---|---|
Conservatives | 19244 | 25653 |
Labour | 16074 | 22849 |
Lib Dem | 1378 | 877 |
Reform UK | 7770 | 2194 |
Green | 213 | 302 |
SNP | 183 | 185 |
Plaid Cymru | 49 | 14 |
Independents | - | 1858 |
Other | - | 210 |
Key Findings
- As with party presence, the Conservative and Labour have had the majority of speaking time during the campaign.
- The Conservatives have widened the gap over Labour in terms of TV speaking time since week three. They account for 37% (+2%) of all speaking time, compared to Labour’s 29% (-2%). This difference is due to the increased access of Conservative sources, which has risen by 3% since week three.
- In press coverage, the gap remains similar to last week, with the Conservatives ahead by a modest margin (+6%). The incumbent party accounts for 45% of all coverage, compared to 39% for the opposition. Both leaders have similar quotation space, but Rishi Sunak constitutes a smaller portion of his party’s overall print coverage.
- The two party squeeze in quotation time is most evident in newspaper reporting. Collectively, the smaller parties account for just over a third of all TV speaking time and a significantly lower 16% of quotation space in newspapers.
- For the first time during the campaign, the Liberal Democrats have overtaken Reform UK in TV speaking time. The Lib Dems have had 8% of all TV speaking time, compared to Reform UK’s 6%. The fledgling party led by Nigel Farage has received a similar level of TV news access as the SNP, the third-largest party in parliament prior to the dissolution of parliament.
- However, Reform UK has received 10% of overall press quotation space during the campaign, compared to the Liberal Democrats just over 2%. Other smaller parties have struggled to gain print access, with the Greens, SNP and Plaid Cymru collectively accounting for less than 1% of quotation time.
- In a continuing trend, the access granted to smaller parties is dominated by their leaders. This is particularly evident in the speaking time in TV coverage ll John Swinney (87% of SNP quotation), Ed Davey (84% of Lib Dem quotation), Rhun ap lorweth (93% of Plaid Cymru quotation), Carla Denyer/Adrian Ramsey (87% of Green Party quotation) and Nigel Farage (87% of Reform quotation). In contrast, access is granted to a wider range of candidates in the two main parties, with Rishi Sunak (30%) and Keir Starmer (36%) accounting for a significantly smaller portion of their party’s overall access.
Section 2: most prominent political figures in the media campaign
Table 2.1: Top 20 Individuals in Week 4 (20 – 26 June)
Position (last week) | Political figure | TV | Press | Total (%s) |
---|---|---|---|---|
1(1) | Keir Starmer (Lab) | 19 | 36 | 31.6 |
2(2) | Rishi Sunak (Con) | 20 | 32 | 29.0 |
3(3) | Nigel Farage (Ref) | 4 | 11 | 9.3 |
4(4) | Rachel Reeves (Lab) | 1 | 6 | 5.0 |
5(8) | Ed Davey (LD) | 5 | 5 | 4.8 |
6(-) | JK Rowling (N/A) | 2 | 5 | 4.3 |
7(-) | James Cleverly (Con) | 1 | 5 | 4.0 |
8(-) | Michael Gove (Con) | 3 | 4 | 3.8 |
9(-) | Bridget Phillipson (Lab) | 1 | 4 | 3.4 |
10(12) | Boris Johnson (Con) | 0 | 4 | 3.1 |
11(7) | Jeremy Hunt (Con) | 0 | 4 | 2.9 |
12(-) | Kemi Badenoch (Con) | 0 | 4 | 2.6 |
13(5) | Wes Streeting (Lab) | 1 | 3 | 2.2 |
14(11) | John Swinney (SNP) | 1 | 2 | 2.1 |
15(19) | Jeremy Corbyn (Ind) | 0 | 3 | 2.1 |
16(9) | Alister Jack (Con) | 1 | 1 | 1.2 |
17=(-) | Gillian Keegan (Con) | 1 | 1 | 1.2 |
17=(10) | Angela Rayner (Lab) | 1 | 1 | 1.2 |
19(-) | Pat McFadden (Lab) | 0 | 1 | 1.0 |
20(-) | Mel Stride (Con) | 0 | 1 | 0.9 |
Notes: percentages = individual’s appearance / total number of items x 100. The figures for TV and press are rounded up/down but the totals are given to decimal point
Key Findings
- Nigel Farage confirms his position as the clear alternative voice to the two main contenders for the premiership. Farage has remained in third place throughout the campaign and has been the politician who has consistently attracted more attention than any other after Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak.
- Farage’s ranking (3rd) is a considerable feat for a politician who was not a leader nor even a candidate when the election was called. Some of this attention has been critical, particularly over the last week in which the Reform UK leader has face greater scrutiny following his comments about Ukraine.
- Starmer and Sunak aside, the news attention afforded Farage is way ahead of any of any other leader in this election including Ed Davey. Davey, who is perceived to have had a good campaign, achieves his highest ranking in this week’s Top 20. Even though he has closed the gap on his Reform UK rival, the LibDem leader still only received just over half the news attention that Farage has generated.
- Just under a third of the Top 20 are women, slightly up on last week. One of these is JK Rowling, the first non-politician to make the Top 10 in this campaign. The writer’s prominence follows her intervention in the debate over gender recognition last weekend. Kemi Badenoch returns to the Top 20 following her contribution to this debate.
- Alister Jack, the Scottish Secretary, makes his debut appearance in the Top 20 on account of him being drawn into the controversy over electoral gambling. The scandal surrounds various allegations involving various candidates and officials, but Jack is the only Cabinet member known to have placed a bet on the date of the election. Many others in the Top 20 have, however, contributed their views on a major topic of debate over the last week.
Section 3: The top issues in the media campaign
Table 3.1: Top issues in TV and Press coverage (20 – 26 June)
Table 3.1 outlines the top 10 issues of the campaign in the fourth week across TV and press outlets. The issues are ranked by their overall prominence across the week.
Rank | Issue | TV | Press | Overall |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Electoral process | 22% | 33% | 30% |
2 | Standards/corruption/scandals/ sleaze | 25% | 12% | 15% |
3= | Taxation | 5% | 7% | 6% |
3= | Economy/business/trade | 7% | 6% | 6% |
3= | Immigration/border controls | 5% | 6% | 6% |
6 | Minority groups | 1% | 6% | 5% |
7= | Health and NHS provision | 3% | 4% | 3% |
7= | Brexit and European Union relations | 3% | 3% | 3% |
7= | Environment including climate change | 3% | 3% | 3% |
7= | Defence/military/security/terrorism | 1% | 3% | 3% |
Other issues | 25% | 18% | 20% |
Notes: Percentages = (frequency of issue/total number of issues coded) x 100. A maximum of 3 issue responses could be coded per item. To be coded, an issue needed to occupy more than 10 seconds of TV coverage or 2 sentences. The most prominent issues were coded when more than three were present. This table shows the top 10 issue overall for week 4.
Table 3.2: Top issues in TV and Press coverage (30 May – 26 June)
Table 3.2 outlines the top 10 issues of the campaign across our entire sample (30 May – 26 June). The issues are also ranked by their overall prominence.
Rank | Issue | Overall |
---|---|---|
1 | Electoral process | 35% |
2 | Taxation | 11% |
3 | Standards/corruption/scandals/sleaze | 7% |
4= | Economy/business/trade | 6% |
4= | Immigration/border controls | 6% |
6 | Health and NHS provision | 5% |
7 | Minority groups | 4% |
8 | Defence/military/security/terrorism | 3% |
9= | Environment including climate change | 2% |
9= | Brexit and European Union relations | 2% |
All other issues | 19% |
Notes: Percentages = (frequency of issue/total number of issues coded) x 100. A maximum of 3 issue responses could be coded per item. To be coded, an issue needed to occupy more than 10 seconds of TV coverage or 2 sentences. The most prominent issues were coded when more than three were present. This table shows the top 10 issue overall for the whole of the campaign.
Key Findings
- Standards, corruption, scandals and sleaze has usurped Taxation as the second most covered issue in week 4. The betting scandal that has engulfed the Conservative Party (and to a lesser extent the Labour Party) has driven the coverage. TV has covered this issue much more than the press.
- This week’s coverage of Standards, corruption, scandals and sleaze has propelled the issue up the overall campaign rankings. It now ranks 3rd, ahead key policy themes, such as Economy/business/trade and Immigration.
- Minority groups (6th) has broken into the top 10 this week. Press coverage of the Labour Party’s position on trans rights and JK Rowling’s criticism of the party has driven this rise. Consequently, Culture Wars also rose in the rankings from 25th to 17th.
- Electoral process issues continue to dominate coverage. But this week has witnessed a drop in its coverage to 30%. However, when added to Standards, corruption, scandals and sleaze, these categories account for 45 percent of issue coverage overall, sidelining substantive policy content further than in previous weeks.
- Outside the top 10, Northern Ireland and Irish Unification has risen to 15th from 26th.
Section 4: The Coverage of Identity Politics and ‘Culture Wars’
In this section we focus on the coverage of issues associated with identity politics and the so-called ‘Culture Wars’.
Figure 4.1 compares the presence of themes associated with ‘minority groups’ across the campaign so far. These categories are aggregated in section 3 but disaggregated here for the purpose of differentiating between aspects of discussion that focus on religious minorities, those relating to sex, gender and sexuality, ‘race’ and ethnicity, and all other aspects of such discussion.
![Figure 4.1: ‘Minority Group’ themes as a Proportion of all Themes](/media/media/campaigns/generalelection2024/charts/report4/report-4-figure-4_1.png)
Figure 4.1 table
Theme | 30 May to 5 June | 6 June to 12 June | 13 June to 19 June | 20 June to 26 June | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Religious | 1% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 1% |
Sex, gender and sexuality | 3% | 1% | 1% | 4% | 2% |
Race and ethnicity | 1% | 1% | 0% | 0% | 1% |
Other | 0% | 0% | 0% | 1% | 0% |
Key Findings
- As noted above, this week saw an increased visibility of so-called ‘identity politics’, after relatively little media coverage since the beginning of the campaign.
- While in 2019, antisemitism was the most prominent ‘minority groups’ issue in media coverage, issues around sex, gender and sexuality are now the most pronounced. Around 1 in every 25 of all issues in coverage this week featured some discussion of sex, gender and sexuality.
- These issues have been covered more prominently in the press (4% ‘minority groups’ theme, 1% ‘culture wars’ theme) than on TV (2% minority groups, 0.3% culture wars) across the campaign so far.
- The Express has been at the forefront in covering these issues, with ‘minority groups’ ranked 3rd (9% of all issues) amongst the newspaper's overall issues coverage. ‘Culture wars’ is ranked 9th at 3%.
- Among other outlets, ‘minority groups’ has also featured in the Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Daily Mail, Times and the Sun at around 5-6% of issues coverage. Meanwhile, the Financial Times (0%), Star (1%), Channel 5 News (1%) and BBC1 News at Ten (1%) have each barely covered these issues.
- The author JK Rowling was the most prominent non-politician figure in election coverage this week. Rowling’s visibility followed her authoring a Times newspaper piece which claimed that ‘Labour has turned its back on women’. In a league table of all individuals (politician and non-politician), Rowling would rank 20th in the campaign so far, jumping up to 6th in this week’s coverage.
- The Minister for Women and Equalities, Kemi Badenoch, has ranked 12th overall this week, owed in large part to a public dispute with the actor David Tennant about LGBTQ+ rights.
- The visibility of Bridget Phillipson, the second highest placed of all women politicians, is in part due to reporting on her comments on trans women, and an apparent divergence from Starmer’s position in this regard.
- Perhaps surprisingly, the term ‘woke’ has been invoked very rarely in election coverage. Despite the term’s potency in political discourse in recent years, ‘woke’ has been specifically mentioned in only 3 press headlines in the campaign so far.
- The term has been invoked a total of 25 times by journalists in our sample (90% of which has been with a pejorative orientation) compared with only 8 instances of its use by quoted sources. The term has been used by journalists in the Express (9 times), the Daily Mail (4 times), the Daily Telegraph (3 times) and the Sun (7 times).
- The terms appearance on one occasion each in the Guardian and the I came in the form of ironic usage, compared with the pejorative form found in other outlets.
Section 5: Headline News Analysis
Figure 5.1: Newspaper Headline Word Cloud in GE2024
To add to our analysis of the reporting of issues and personalities we have conducted a keyword search of newspaper headlines (30 May – 26 June).
Figure 5.1 provides a ‘word cloud’ of the most frequently appearing words in these contexts. The more prominent a word appears in the image, the more frequently it appeared in headlines.
Key Findings
- Labour’s apparent dominance in terms of party references is to some degree a measure of the varied names used to label the Conservative party. The term ‘Labour’ featured 7 percent more frequently than the combined references to either ‘Tory’, ‘Tories’, or ‘Conservatives’ (287 appearances versus 271)
- The ‘Reform’ party had 69 headline references, compared with 17 for the ‘Lib Dems’/ ‘Liberal Democrats’, 10 for ‘the Greens’/ ’Green party’, 6 for the ‘SNP’, and none for ‘Plaid Cymru’.
- ‘Starmer’ references exceeded those to ‘Sunak’ by 33 percent (171 appearances versus 129). Mentions of the first name of the Labour leader (‘Keir’) exceeded references to the first name of Conservative leader (‘Rishi’) by 38 percent (80 appearances to 58 appearances).
- References to ‘Farage’ (95 appearances) considerably exceeded the surname of the other parties’ leaders (Davey [Lib Dem] =13, ‘Swinney’ [SNP]=2, ‘Denyer’/ ‘Ramsay’ [Greens]= 0).
- ‘Tax’ is the policy term referenced most frequently in headlines to date (139 references). The next most frequently headlined policy terms are ‘Brexit’ (22 appearances) and ‘NHS’ (22 appearances).
Note: Five ‘false positive’ references were removed (e.g., ‘child benefit reforms’)
Figure 5.2: Newspaper Headline Word Cloud in GE2019
Greater prominence for parties and their leaders in newspaper headlines should not be assumed to be a media advantage. It can be indicative of a ‘hot seat’ effect, in which leaders and parties are being exposed to higher levels of press scrutiny and criticism.
This point can be demonstrated by an equivalent analysis of national press headlines in the 2019 General Election (see Figure 5.2).
Key Findings
- CRCC analysis of the 2019 media campaign found extremely high levels of press negativity towards the Labour party and its leadership throughout (CRCC, 2019). In this coverage, ‘Labour’ headline references exceeded those for ‘Tories’/ ‘Tory’/ ‘Conservative’ by a third (239 versus 180).
- Policy keywords were also more prominent in 2019 Headlines compared with 2024 (‘Brexit’ = 95 appearances, ‘NHS’ = 89, ‘Tax’ = 63).
Modes of address: Just Call Me Keir?
In everyday social interaction, calling people by their first name often communicates familiarity and affection. Conversely, using full names or surnames tends to convey formality, distance, and, sometimes, hostility.
These social norms do not always apply neatly in the naming of politicians in newspaper headlines. Sometimes names are selected because of the opportunities they present for wordplay (e.g., ‘NuKeir option’, ‘Another Farage Farrago’). Other times they are selected for reasons of brevity and informality (e.g., ‘Rishi is trailing’, ‘Nige lob charge’). Familiarity can also be used to convey contempt (e.g., ‘No Dish Rish: My Sky TV Hell… Sunak’s Idea of a ‘Hardship’, ‘Hide in Keir Sight’).
Nevertheless, the broad patterning of naming practices is suggestive of the newspapers’ editorial perceptions and estimations of different party leaders.
Figures 5.3 and 5.4 compares changes in the naming of the leaders of the two main parties in the 2019 and 2024 campaigns, quantifying instances where they are referred to by their full name, their surname, or their first name:
![Figure 5.3: How Conservative Party leaders are referenced in GE2019 and GE2024 Headlines](/media/media/campaigns/generalelection2024/charts/report4/report-4-figure-5_3.png)
Figure 5.3 table
2019 | 2024 | |
---|---|---|
Surname only | 49.56897 | 66.85714 |
First name only | 47.41379 | 26.28571 |
Full name | 3.017241 | 6.857143 |
![Figure 5.4: How Labour Party leaders are referenced in GE2019 and GE2024 Headlines](/media/media/campaigns/generalelection2024/charts/report4/report-4-figure-5_4.png)
Figure 5.4 table
2019 | 2024 | |
---|---|---|
Surname only | 94.39252 | 66.80672 |
First name only | 3.738318 | 28.57143 |
Full name | 1.869159 | 4.621849 |
Key Findings
- ‘Rishi’ doesn’t have the same resonance that ‘Boris’ did in 2019. ‘First name only’ references to the Conservative leader have reduced considerably in 2024.
- As a corollary, ‘surname only’ references to the Conservative leader have increased in the most recent campaign.
- In 2019, the Labour party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, was almost exclusively referred to by his surname (94 percent of appearances). So far for 2024, Keir Starmer has been referenced by ‘surname only’ in 2/3rds of references in 2024 (66 percent). This is an identical proportion to that found for ‘Sunak’.
- ‘First name only’ references to the Labour leader have increased from 4 percent in 2019 to 29 percent in 2024.
- As noted, the significance of these changing patterns in the mode of address of the two main leaders should not be overstated. First name usage doesn’t always indicate a fond designation and there are numerous instances where they are used alongside political rebukes (e.g., ‘882 Migrants “Here for Keir”’, ‘Rishi and the Broken Leaders’ Club’). Nevertheless, the scale of the overall shift of naming practices is suggestive of some realignment in the editorial personification of the main protagonists across the two campaigns.
Section 6: Positive and negative treatment of the political parties in the press
In this section we discuss the overall positivity or negativity of newspaper coverage. For each item we assessed whether the information or commentary contained within it had positive or negative implications for each political party.
This is not just a measure of overt support or criticism by a journalist of a party (although these instances would be included in the count). It is also a measure of the extent to which newspapers report on issues/ comments/ developments that have positive or negative implications for parties. We only coded those instances where these were overtly referred to in the piece.
Scoring
- If an item mainly or solely focused on positive matters for a party, it was given a value of +1.
- If it mainly/ solely focused on negative matters for a party, it was assigned a value of -1.
- Items where there was (a) no clear evaluation, (b) contained positive and negative issues in broadly equal measure or (c) no mention of the party was made, were coded as zero.
- Items where no reference was made to the party were excluded from the calculation.
Figure 6.1
The scores in Figure 6.1 are calculated by subtracting the total number of negative stories from the total of positive stories for the five main parties. The totals are disaggregated by week.
![Figure 6.1: Newspaper Evaluations of Main Parties by Week](/media/media/campaigns/generalelection2024/charts/report4/report-4-figure-6_1.png)
Figure 6.1 table
Conservatives | Labour | Lib Dems | SNP | Reform UK | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
30 May to 5 June | -83 | -106 | -1 | -9 | 15 |
6 June to 12 June | -117 | -35 | 2 | -1 | -1 |
13 June to 19 June | -121 | -84 | -6 | -1 | -29 |
20 June to 26 June | -142 | -109 | -8 | -12 | -20 |
Total | -463 | -334 | -13 | -23 | -35 |
Key Findings
- Negativity in Conservative coverage has intensified further in Week 4 of our sample. A significant proportion of this has been driven by intensive coverage of the betting scandals that are mainly associated with Conservative party figures.
- Negative coverage of the Labour party has also increased as the campaign enters its final stages. Levels of negative coverage now exceed those found for the first week of our sample, when the dispute over Diane Abbott’s candidacy attracted high levels of press coverage.
- All the other parties registered much smaller deficits for week 4 compared with Conservatives and Labour.
- The minor fluctuation for the SNP and Lib Dems mainly indicates their marginality in press coverage.
- The figures for Reform are more reflective of the polarised nature of their coverage, in which negative and positive news angles tend to counterbalance themselves.
Figure 6.2
Figure 6.2 examines the distribution of main party evaluations by newspaper title.
![Figure 6.2: Overall Party Evaluations By Newspaper Title (30 May – 26 June 2024)](/media/media/campaigns/generalelection2024/charts/report4/report-4-figure-6_2.png)
Figure 6.2 table
Conservatives | Labour | Lib Dems | SNP | Reform UK | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Daily Express | 10 | -93 | -9 | -2 | 10 |
The Daily Mail | -2 | -97 | -3 | 0 | -10 |
The Daily Telegraph | -48 | -105 | -4 | -2 | -1 |
The Sun | -29 | -54 | -3 | -7 | 1 |
The Star | -23 | -4 | -2 | 0 | -7 |
The Times | -45 | -24 | 2 | -4 | -7 |
The I | -72 | -12 | 0 | -3 | 1 |
The Financial Times | -58 | 3 | 1 | -3 | 0 |
The Guardian | -79 | -2 | 6 | -2 | -9 |
The Mirror | -117 | 54 | -1 | 0 | -13 |
Total | -463 | -334 | -13 | -23 | -35 |
Key Findings
- Only aggregate coverage in the Daily Express is registering a positive value for the Conservatives. Coverage of ‘Reform’ is also uniquely positive in this paper.
- Aggregated Conservative coverage in the Daily Mail has now shifted into the negative side of the ledger.
- The Daily Telegraph and The Times have accrued comparable levels of negative coverage of the Tories. Where they differ is in their negativity towards Labour. In the Telegraph, levels of Labour bad news are twice as high as those found in The Times.
- Levels of negativity towards Labour have increased in The Sun over the last week, but these are below those found for the Express, Telegraph, and Mail.
- Labour has commanded a positive overall press in two papers: the Daily Mirror (by a country mile) and the Financial Times (by a whisker).
- The highest levels of negative reporting towards the Conservatives have been observed in The Mirror, The Guardian, The I, and the Financial Times.
- Overall, newspaper negativity in the reporting of all parties tends to prevail. Only the Mirror registers a significant surplus of positivity for their preferred party.