Evaluating newspaper performance in the public sphere: Press accounts of Westminster elections in Scotland and in England in the early post-devolution period

Abstract

This article explores ways of evaluating the performance of the press in an electoral public sphere and compares the output of newspapers in England and in Scotland during the 2001 and 2005 general election campaigns. It combines content analysis with critical discussion of examples of coverage and complements these with evidence from interviews with Scottish political editors. It argues that, even though Scottish newspapers gave less coverage to the two elections than titles sold in England, both sets of newspapers performed better in their role as providers of information and opinion to inform the electorate, than in that of presenting an inclusive, discursive and diverse electoral debate or encouraging forms of active citizenry.