ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ways in which the new dailies incorporated sensationalism and spectacle within their coverage of general election news. The language and visuals used within election news emphasised dramatic elements and often connected the political sphere onto aspects of the wider mass-consumer culture of the period, including popular sports and mass-entertainment events such as the theatre and the music hall. The significance of this was to articulate the electoral sphere as an accessible and engaging part of readers’ lives, in ways similar to the ‘human interest’ content that propelled these newspapers to their mass daily readership numbers.
