20 May 2016

EU Referendum: Discover what’s making the media headlines

Academics from the University’s  have conducted news audits for every General Election since 1992.

The referendum audit is concentrating on the main news bulletins/programmes on BBC1, ITV, C4, C5 and Sky, and all the main daily national newspapers. Coverage is analysed weekly, and the first report is released on Monday 23 May at 12 noon.

The reports will provide commentary about the week’s coverage and systematic measurements of which campaign groups receive the most coverage, the proportion of negative and positive coverage, which issues receive greatest prominence and the amount of coverage overall given to the referendum.

The audit is being led by ,  , Dr Emily Harmer,  and Professor , from the .

Speaking about the audit Professor Deacon said: “The media plays a crucial role in elections.  For most people it is their primary source of information when it comes to deciding how to vote.  Therefore being able to see who and what is making the headlines is very important.”

The team’s full reports and further analysis will be made available on the University’s web page.