Thesis
The leading women: The media representation of minor party leadership during the 2019 UK General Election
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2024
- Thesis identifier
- T16873
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 201988713
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- This thesis analyses the media representation of Nicola Sturgeon, Jo Swinson, and Arlene Foster during the 2019 UK General Election. Each politician within this thesis was serving in a different political system enabling an expansive look at the representation of political leadership across the UK. I examined newspapers, Twitter, and the televised election debates to review the self-presentation and representation of these three female politicians in mediated spaces. Amongst my selection of media, I reviewed the personal Twitter accounts of these political women, their media representation in London-based, Scottish, and Northern Irish national publications, and the televised debates broadcasted on the BBC, ITV, STV, and Channel 4. I analysed these three forms of media by using a mixed methods approach combining content analysis and critical discourse analysis.In this study, there were interesting differences between the three women in terms of explicitly gendered coverage: Foster's coverage was the least gendered, Swinson's the most. At the same time, the media representation of Sturgeon included gendered commentary that was positive in tone and used to present her as politically accomplished. The second prominent finding of the study was the variation in coverage between London-based, Scottish, and Northern Irish newspapers for each politician’s media representation. In addition, each party leader held political positions in different countries of the UK, revealing expressions of banal nationalism within their self-presentation. Notably, the reference to national belonging was most impactful in my Foster and Northern Irish datasets. Foster's selfpresentation and media representation were often focused on Northern Irish issues rather than the whole of the UK. Foster's prominence as a local figure in Northern Ireland and her constituency showed that various methods of analysis are needed to study politicians less prominent in a UK-wide election compared to political figures like Sturgeon and Swinson, who became a part of the national media agenda.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Boyle, Karen, 1972-
- Resource Type
- DOI
- Date Created
- 2023
Las relaciones
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PDF of thesis T16873 | 2024-04-24 | Público | Descargar |