The public sphere in the Scottish press: Content analysis of newspaper coverage of Scottish elections

This research explores the performance of British and Scottish newspapers in the public sphere during the 2011 Scottish General Election. Through content analysis of quality newspaper coverage, as well as a focused framing study of two important British constitutional matters, Scottish independence and devolution, this thesis finds a variety of similar and differentiating characteristics between Scottish and British newspapers. On the whole, Scotland offers less evaluative coverage (opinion and editorial articles) while the British newspapers attempt to influence and impact voter’s decisions by providing much more of this. Another difference is in the access given to political sources. Scottish newspapers provide a balance of coverage to the two political parties likely to win, the Scottish National Party and Labour, while British newspapers utilized more Labour sources. Further, framing of a then potential independence referendum was shown to be nationalist and as a risk in all British titles, while Scottish titles on the other hand provided a variety of frames. These findings show the continuing trend from previous studies; that Scottish newspapers perform differently in the public sphere than their British counterparts in elections