Elections without politics: Television coverage of the 2001 B.C. election

This study examines election news in terms of its adequacy as an information source for voters and for political communications in general. Previous research on election studies in Canada focused on news reports of national election campaigns. By contrast, this study focuses on election coverage in British Columbia. It offers an exploratory and descriptive content analysis of the television news coverage of the 2001 British Columbia general election using data from the 6 p.m. news broadcasts of four major television stations during the twenty-eight day election campaign. The study utilizes quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the election topics, the sources quoted, the party coverage, and the dominant narratives and frames in the news discourse. Results on election topics indicated a predominance of campaign-related focus of news topics as opposed to issue-related focus. Results on source quotes indicate differences in the purpose and frequency with which political actors, individuals, 'experts' and representatives of organizations where used. Analysis of party coverage and discourse frames demonstrated there were differences in how the parties were covered and that these differences put the incumbent NDP at a disadvantage. In addition, the election coverage drew upon two dominant and evaluative narrative structures in telling the 'campaign story': that of disruption/stability, and that of winnerAoser binary oppositions. Common framing devices and metaphors in the news discourse were also reviewed and discussed. This study offers a number of observations about the political implications and significance of patterns and tendencies revealed by the research. Significantly, this study not only provides the first systematic and comprehensive data on television news coverage of a British Columbian election, it also offers much needed communications research about any provincial election, both within British Columbia, and in other provinces in Canada. By utilizing both content analysis and discourse analysis techniques of news analysis it offers a substantive benchmark for future studies. Finally, this dissertation makes the case for communications scholars to return their research attention to media and elections.