1st Edition
Television and the Political Image A Study of the Impact of Television on the 1959 General Election
Was the 1959 UK General Election the first television election? Could television be used to create a Party ‘image’? Television and the Political Image (1961) provides answers to both these questions. It surveys two constituencies, interviewing the same cross-section of electors before and after the election campaign, and analyses and compares the campaigns as conducted by television, radio, the Press, and through the work of the local Parties. Various effects of the political barrage are measured and attributed to their sources; such effects include changes in voting intention during the course of the election campaign, changes in attitudes to Parties and their leaders, and changes in what the voter knows of the parties’ policies.
1. Election Television – an Unknown Factor 2. Method 3. Political Images 4. The Nature of the Campaign 5. How the Campaign Reached the Electors 6. Television Electioneering – the Viewers’ Response 7. Changes of Allegiance during the 1959 Campaign 8. Changes in Political Attitudes 9. The Electors’ Knowledge of Party Policies and National Issues 10. The Effects of Television and Other Media 11. The Characteristics of the ‘Changers’ 12. Some Implications 13. Summary of the Findings
Biography
Joseph Trenaman and Denis McQuail
