Martin Moore, Gordon Ramsay







Digital agenda-setting: Measuring mainstream and social media influence during the UK 2015 election campaign

This paper examines the setting up and managing of 'Election Unspun', an experimental news content analysis project, and its main findings. In the end, the project collected every tweet from more than 3,000 political actors and influencers, analysed the national newspapers' coverage and websites of ITV News, Sky News and Channel 4 News and the UK versions of the Huffington Post and Buzzfeed Politics during the 2015 general election campaign in the UK. It concludes that, despite the plethora of media platforms available, 2015 was a top down, stage-managed campaign. From the statements, tweets and party political material published by the parties, the party leaders, and the candidates it was clear that both the Conservatives and Labour were eager to talk about the economy, and the press largely followed their lead

Keywords: digital agenda setting, UK General Election, media content analysis


References

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Note on the contributor

Dr Martin Moore is Director of the Centre for the Study of Media, Communication and Power and a Senior Research Fellow in the Policy Institute at King's College London. He was previously director of the Media Standards Trust.

Dr Gordon Neil Ramsay is Deputy Director of the Centre for the Study of Media, Communication and Power and a Research Fellow in the Policy Institute at King's College London. He was previously research fellow at the Media Standards Trust.