British Tabloids in Electoral Process: An Example of Mediacracy or Soft Power?

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Svetlana S. Bodrunova

PhD in Political Science, Associate Professor, St. Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, Russia

e-mail: s.bodrunova@spbu.ru

Section: Foreign Journalism

The author reconstructs the existing discourse on electoral impact of tabloid press, the British national tabloids taken as empirical base. The conclusion in favor of a limited ‘Sun effect’ is made. A hypothesis of symbolic meaning of visually represented ‘tabloid shifts’ is formulated.

Keywords: media & political studies, mediacracy, general elections, British press, tabloid journalism