It’s hard to miss that today, Thursday 7th May 2015, the UK is going to the polls to vote in the General Election. Have you voted yet?
We’ve pulled together just a small selection of Library resources and external sources that you may find useful if you are interested in elections and the election process in general or specifically in the UK General Election 2015.
What do the papers say?
Although traditional news outlets are seen as less influential these days they still matter and have been extensively covering the General Election.
Factiva (off-campus access requires VPN) and NexisUK (click “Academic sign-in” and choose “UK federation”) allow you to search and access the full text of a large number of UK and international newspapers to find out how they have been covering the General Election. Read full text articles, compare how different newspapers are covering the same issues and stories, track the coverage of the General Election from the beginning and more. You can also use Lexis Library to specifically look at UK newspapers.
All of these databases have newpapers and news sites coverage from around 1980s onwards so you can also use them to look at how coverage of general elections has changed over the years.
Want to go even further back and find out how elections were covered 50 years ago or 100 years ago? The Library also subscribes to a number of archival full-text newspapers databases that allow you to do just that. You can access these and databases mentioned above at Newspaper Databases.
57 channels and nothing on?
From leader debates to party political broadcasts, news items, documentaries, dramas and comedies it has been hard to escape the General Election on TV and radio. But if you have missed anything or want to go back and study or compare the coverage on different channels then Box of Broadcasts (BoB) could be just what you are looking for.
With access to 60+ freeview TV and radio channels BoB has recordings of general election related programmes and clips from 2010 onwards. Missed a programme or something coming up that you don’t want to miss? Use the Programme Guide to go forwards or backwards from today’s date and request a programme for recording.
Interested in going further back than 2010? BFI InView has a number of party political broadcasts, documentaries and interviews available. The database covers 1900-2005 but you must log in to get full access.
Elections in e-books
Interesting in further reading on elections in general? How about some of these e-books that are available through the Library.
Image bite politics: news and the visual framing of elections by Maria Elizabeth Grabe and Erik Page Bucy.
Voter turnout: a social theory of political participation by Meredith Rolfe.
Interested in other recent non-UK elections?
The 2012 French presidential elections: the inevitable alternation by Jocelyn Evans and Gilles Ivaldi.
Find more e-books and print books at the Library through DiscoverEd.
Keeping up to date with election anaylsis, predictions and news?
Here are just a small selection of freely available online resources that will help you do this:
Election Forecast UK
BBC Election 2015
The Conversation: Election 2015
What Scotland Thinks
University of Edinburgh General Election podcast
Polling Matters
British Election Study
May 2015 (New Statesman)
Please note, this blog post contains links to external websites which we have no control over the content of and they do not reflect the opinion of the University of Edinburgh.
Library resources, such as databases and e-books, are only available to staff and students at University of Edinburgh.
Caroline Stirling – Academic Support Librarian for Social and Political Science