The present in retrospect: Press reporting of UK General Elections, 1918–2015

This article provides a unique content analysis of 100 years of national press coverage of UK General Elections and tests four claims about historical trends in election news reporting: (1) that coverage is becoming more focused on political leaders at the expense of other political sources; (2) that reporting of the personalities and personal lives of politicians has expanded; (3) that editorial treatment of politicians has become increasingly negative; and (4) that news coverage is increasingly obsessed with the conduct of politics rather than its substantive content. Through the detail of this analysis we identify areas of historical continuity as well as change and challenge overly neat periodizations and simple histories of election news reporting.