INDEX OF PARTISANSHIP - A METHODOLOGY FOR DETERMINING CHANGE IN THE POLITICAL BIAS OF NEWSPAPERS READERS

This research note is taken from an extensive paper presented in three parts to the WAPOR Asia-Pacific Rim Conference in Sydney, Australia, July 16, 1994: the first part looked at the change in the British publ ic's national newspaper reading habits now compared with 25 years ago, comparing readership then to recent (1993) aggregate data of over 30, 000 respondents. Over this period readership of the tabloid press has fallen dramatically; many more of the British nation today read no nat ional daily newspaper regularly now, and the demographic structure of readership has changed. The second part looked at the role of the medi a in the 1992 British general election, drawing on an aggregate sample size of over 23,000 respondents, weighted to the political outcome of the election and indicating it ain't 'the Sun wot won it', but the mi ddle market papers, the Express and the Mail, and examined the shifts in partisanship among different national daily and Sunday newspapers' readers since that election at a time of both political and newspaper market turbulence. In this section an Index of Partisanship is introdu ced, a methodology for determining change in the political leanings of readers. The third section examined the attitudes of the British publ ic to their newspapers, their role in our society and public support f or restrictions on the press, showing that while they still buy the ta bloids by the millions and approve of breaches of individual's privacy to uncover criminal conduct or personal hypocrisy, they do not approv e of press intrusion into the royal family. Copies of the full paper a re available from the author; the Index of Partisanship methodology se ction is offered here.