Alternative Agendas or More of the Same? Online News Coverage of the 2017 UK Election

Abstract

This contribution explores the growing digital role in politics with a content analysis of five major websites that reported on the campaign. Aside from focusing on the familiar journalistic preoccupation with the electoral ‘horserace’ as was as substantive issues including Brexit, the analysis also reveals a marked interest in allegations of bias in traditional media coverage. The chapter also assesses the gendered nature of online news: despite this being a markedly presidential campaign featuring a female Prime Minister, digital coverage emulated its offline rivals in that it was also dominated by men. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature 2019.