ABSTRACT

Despite, or because of, a six-week campaign, the turnout of 71.6 per cent was the lowest for 60 years, and despite, or because of, more extensive television coverage of the campaign than ever before, the audience, and that means the voters, showed less interest in the election than the politicians expected. A survey of 4,000 viewers by the commercial television regulator, the Independent Television Commission (ITC), found that four out of ten viewers said they actively avoided the coverage by changing channels or switching off their sets.1