Political Communication in Britain, 1st ed. 2022 Campaigning, Media and Polling in the 2019 General Election

Political Communication in Britain offers unique insights from various members of the party, media, and polling organizations that contested, reported, and analysed the 2019 British General Election, as well as leading academic experts who have researched the campaign.

Following an essay by Sir John Curtice exploring how the critical issue of Brexit influenced the election, the opening part of this volume features insiders discussing their respective parties? operations, including their successes and disappointments. This section also includes expert examinations of Boris Johnson?s ?oven ready deal? as well as the digital advertising and controversial public relations efforts that helped promote it. The middle part of the book considers the media, with chapters from the BBC, Sky News, and regulator Ofcom, along with analyses of the pro-Conservative press, digital-only plat[1]forms, and the more left-leaning alternative news sites. The closing section of the volume turnsto public attitudes, with experts, including leading pollsters, exploring how these contributed to the Conservatives? victory. Dedicated chapters also place opinion research in broader context through examining the historical role of the exit poll, and the changing reception and reporting of polls both online and in print. Political Communication in Britain provides readers with an indispensable guide to the 2019 General Election from several of those most intimately involved in the campaign.

Chapter 1: Background to the Campaign: From Confidence and Supply to the Oven Ready Deal.- Chapter 2: A Brexit Election?.- Part 1: CAMPAIGNING.- Chapter 3: Reaching the Right People: the Conservatives.- Chapter 4: No Time for Real Change: Labour.- Chapter 5: ‘Time to Choose Our Future’: the SNP.- Chapter 6: An Alternative Voice: the Liberal Democrats.- Chapter 7: ‘Me and Brexit, or Nothing’: a French perspective on Boris Johnson’s victory.- Chapter 8: ‘Water Dripping on a Stone’: Topham Guerin and the Tory digital strategy.- Chapter 9: “Strategic lying”: or how the Conservatives dominated the campaign news agenda.- Part 2: MEDIA.- Chapter 10: Knocking Copy: How the Press Covered the Campaign.- Chapter 11: Reporting the Digital Campaign: Online News coverage of the 2019 UK General Election by Buzzfeed and The Huffington Post.- Chapter 12: The Role of Alternative Media in the 2019 General Election.- Chapter 13: Consternation Bias: debates, TV inquisitions and impartiality in a changing electoral era.- Chapter 14: Path to Power: The Brexit Election.- Chapter 15: Of Empty Chairs and Ice Sculptures: Regulating broadcasting during the 2019 General Election – The Ofcom perspective.- Part 3: POLLING.- Chapter 16: Understanding the Vote and the Voters: Ipsos MORI’s polling in 2019.- Chapter 17: The Other Election ‘Winners’: Polling and the Pollsters.- Chapter 18: Social Media and the UK General Election 2019.- Chapter 19: Exit Polling: a brief history.- Chapter 20: From Media to Social Media: opinion polling in the current context.- Chapter 21: Is the Conservative Lead Growing? Is a Hung Parliament Possible? What Can We Believe? How a Partisan Press Reported the Polls.

11th volume in the longstanding Political Communications series launched in 1979 Provides both practitioner and academic commentaries on the 2019 British General Election Seeks to understand the relationships between the parties, media and voting public