Election 2010 coverage

This is the time that most of us 'just turned 18 year olds' have been waiting for - our first chance to vote... and I hope you all will be voting!

Now, as Andy stated in his brief for this assignment - television's function in the election should be to inform the electorate and therefore allow them to cast a sensible, logical and well informed vote on May 6th.

Now, there is no doubt there has been quantity of coverage, but the real questions is, is it quality or merely style over substance.

The usual coverage has been there, many tv news debates, a mass of party political broadcasts, coverage of the leaders visiting the public - including the recent 'scandal' involving Gordon Brown where he was caught off camera calling a women from Rochdale a 'bigot' - here is an example of where the press have made a huge fuss out of nothing, this one minor incident has reeled in far more press coverage than any other serious discussions about the election - this is a real example of how shallow our understanding of politics is - why are our television broadcasters, including the BBC (who appear to be becoming more pro Tory as every minute passes) are focussing on such a minor issue involving the Prime Minister making, in what my opinion was a very accurate judgement.

Anyway, before I was side tracked I was listing the usual tv coverage of an election - however this year saw something, up until now, unseen - a leaders debate - where the leader of each of the three leading political parties came together and debated their policies in front of a live studio audience. I believe Gordon Brown should be commended as he is the first ever Prime Minister who has agreed to do this.

I feel these debates were covered well on the most part, the host giving each leader a fair chance to speak. There was, however, an element of style over substance, with a lot of the audience being distracted from Nick Clegg's wishy-washy policies by his clear and concise delivery, people favouring David Cameron for his short, ill informed statements, refuting every word that came out of the Prime Minister's mouth, and people not hearing the substance behind a lot of Brown's arguments because of his stilted and slightly awkward delivery.

The parties have also got celebrities on board for their campaigns - the Conservatives being supported by Gary Barlow from 'Take That' and the Labour party being supported by our very own David Tennant, who I think made a sensible point when he was quoted saying - "I would rather have a Prime Minister who is the cleverest man in the room than a Prime Minister who looks good in a suit".

All in all, I think the television coverage of the election has been okay - however I think a lot of television stations have shown some biases. I know I have shown a bias throughout this blog but realistically this is how all viewers will approach and take from the coverage - taking from it what they want.

I do find that it is sad that we only have the option of voting for two parties, possibly three this year, as I would probably vote for smaller party but we do not get the coverage for these smaller parties in the media - we are only told about the mainstream parties.

I will stop here and we will soon see how the coverage of the actual election on Thursday May 6th will play out.