British party election broadcasts - A comparison of 1992 and 1997

This article presents a content analysis of the British party election broa dcasts (PEBs) aired by the Conservative and Labour Parties during the 1992 and 1997 general elections. Using "videostyle" a content analysis catagoric al framework that measures components of verbal, nonverbal, and production techniques, several revealing findings are presented in this article. Among the more interesting findings is the increased tendency for the British el ectoral advertising to follow the American example in terms of negativity a nd heightened personalization. In addition, the trend during the period was toward greater use of commercial advertising techniques in PEBs as part of a more concerted communication strategy. As a result, PEBs are now the sub ject of news and are part of a wider debate on the role of media in elector al politics. The 1997 PEBs placed greater focus on the party leaders than t he 1992 PEBs, particularly in the case of Tony Blair's role in the 1997 Lab our PEBs. The dominant negative nature of the FEB, while on the rise, also appears to present more direct, hard-hitting, personal attacks at the oppos ing party and party leaders. Furthermore, like their U.S. counterparts, PEB s are dominated by discussion of policy issues. However, despite the greate r length of the PEBs, there were many missed opportunities for specific pol icy proposal presentation.