ABSTRACT
News coverage of the 2001 general election campaign lends itself to both positive and negative evaluations. On the basis of Norris and Sanders’ research on the impact of media in the 2001 campaign, it is possible to conclude public-service broadcasters are still offering reliable, adequate and sufficient political information to their viewers. 1 However, to accept that conclusion one must also assume that the process of media fragmentation, new trends in campaign journalism and an increasingly apathetic audience, have not compromised the quality of election news. This assumption is challenged by Blumler and Gurevitch’s research (see Chapter 14). They suggest that trends such as the loss of purchase of public-service values among the community of journalists, and fierce competition for audiences between terrestrial broadcasters, do not augur well for campaign learning.
