ABSTRACT
It is widely assumed that British voters obtain a considerable amount of their political information from television and that television news plays an important part in shaping their political and economic perceptions. In these circumstances it comes as something of a surprise to discover that there is no direct individual-level evidence to show that any such effects do indeed operate. This study seeks to address this shortcoming. It uses an experimental research design to assess the extent to which the political perceptions of a sample of 1125 UK voters tested during the 1997 general election campaign were affected by 'positive' and 'negative' party images presented in television news programmes.
