Media and Leader Effects

Abstract

The analyses in Chapters 2 and 3 have suggested two clear conclusions. The first is that the mass media, specifically newspapers and television, have sharply increased the attention they pay to the Conservative and Labour party leaders in the course of their coverage of recent election campaigns as compared to previous ones. The second is that at the same time that the party leaders have become more prominent in the media, they have come to enjoy a stronger influence on the choice of party that voters make. In other words, the presidentialization of presentation that has come to characterize British newspapers and television seem to have some association with a presidentialization of electoral impact. Arguing that, for television at least, this association is not coincidental, the purpose of this chapter is to specify the nature of the linkage between presentation and impact.