Study reveals election coverage skewed in favour of Farage, Reform

A new study from the University of Loughborough has confirmed what many may already have suspected. Media coverage outside of the top two parties during the recent General Election was somewhat skewed in favour of Nigel Farage and Reform.

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It’s true, Nigel Farage and Reform dominated press coverage

The research reveals that Farage was the third-most ‘covered’ politician in the country – even though he is running a party that previously had no Parliamentary presence beforehand, and ended up returning just five MPs.

Now, compare that to the spotlight received by Green Party leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsey. They quadrupled the number of Green MPs in Parliament, gaining one seat less than Reform. In a list that put Farage third for press coverage, neither of these left-leaning leaders even made top 20.

Though Reform gained more than four million votes, they are only the sixth-largest party in the House of Commons. The figures reveal that roughly 12% of all coverage for political leaders focused on Mr. Farage, and largely ‘ignored’ others.

Lib Dems, Greens, and SNP ‘not granted’ same level of coverage’

Despite massive growth for the Liberal Democrats, who increased their number of MPs from eight to 72 at this election, they struggled to retain their space in the limelight. This, despite leader Ed Davey’s action-packed campaign.

• A study of print coverage from the research team shows how, beyond Labour and the Conservatives, Reform were favoured for coverage ahead of parties with similar-sized support bases:
  

Farage Factor: Was attention for Reform ‘unbalanced’?

The figures will be cause for consternation among Lib Dem, Green Party, and SNP figures. Reform and Farage were clearly given more exposure, and it will certainly raise questions about whether this election could have panned out differently.

“Nigel Farage established himself in third place [behind Starmer and Sunak] in terms of election coverage. He maintained this position throughout the campaign, outdoing rival politicians and other leaders through the generated press attention.”

“The Liberal Democrats’ media presence reduced from 2019, as did the SNP’s. In contrast, the Reform Party gained markedly more media exposure than their predecessor, the Brexit Party.”

“Ed Davey attracted enough news interest to take fifth place overall in the media election. In doing so the Liberal Democrat was particularly reliant on television airtime rather than his more modest newspaper appearances.” | Loughborough University