Performance, Politics, and Media: How the 2010 British General Election Leadership Debates Generated “Talk” Among the Electorate

Abstract

During the British General Election 2010, a major innovation was introduced in part to improve engagement: A series of three livetelevised leadership debates took place in which the leader of each of the three main parties-Labour, Liberal Democrat, andConservative-answered questions posed by members of the public and subsequently debated issues pertinent to the questions. In this study, we consider these potentially ground-breaking debates as the kind of event that was likely to generate discussion. We investigate various aspects of the "talk" that emerged as a result of watching the debates. As an exploratory study concerned with situated accounts of the participants' experiences, we take an interpretive perspective. In this paper we outline the meta-narratives (of talk) associated with the viewing of the leadership debates that were identified, concluding our analysis by suggesting that putting a live debate on television and promoting and positioning it as a major innovation is likely to mean that is how the audience will make sense of it: as a media event.Political discussion is understood to be a vital part of deliberative democracies (Crick 2000;Dahlgren 2003). More than this, with a reduction in traditional political party engagement and a more sceptical electorate (Couldry 2005; Dermody, Lloyd-Hamner, and Scullion 2009), talk between members of the electorate-including online discussion-is likely to have increased potential to influence voting behaviors. We ask how such talk can be instigated by the media, looking specifically at the three live debates between party leaders (Labour, Conservative, and Liberal Democrat) that took place in the 3 weeks leading up to the 2010 UK General Election, as a potential catalyst for political talk. The three debates were broadcast live on ITV, BBC, and Sky News at weekly intervals during the campaign, all using questions put forward by a voter audience.The debates became a major feature of the election campaign (BBC News 2010; Times 2010) with much media coverage in the lead-up to and subsequent detailed analysis of each debate. Indeed, Beale (2010), writing in The Independent, said, "if this election has taught the parties' communications strategists and their advertising agency partners anything, it's the power of television. There's no doubt that all the time and money spent on advertising has been overshadowed by the impact of the televised debates." Several surveys seem to support the idea that the debates were excellent public relations tools for the election itself. For example, PR Week (2010) noted: "More than 80% of the 3,000 respondents to PR Week poll survey said future elections should include debates." Their survey also found that 70% of respondents believed the debates made them feel more engaged with politics and that they paid more attention to the leaders' debates than other types of campaigning such as canvassing, social media, advertising, and editorial. Sixty-five percent said the debates had increased their understanding of what the leaders and the...