Author Archive

Emily Harmer

After completing her PhD at Loughborough University in 2012, Emily Harmer was appointed as a Research Associate in May 2013 to work with Professor David Deacon on a Leverhulme Trust funded project analysing continuities and changes in the press reporting of British General Elections between 1918 and 2010. Her PhD thesis mapped the qualitative and quantitative representation of women as politicians, voters and relatives of politicians in British election coverage between 1918 and 2010. She is therefore particularly interested in the relationships between media, politics and gender and the historical development of such relationships.

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Politics has historically been dominated by men, and women have only relatively recently been elected to the UK Parliament in significant numbers. In order for women to be effectively represented in the political domain, they must also be adequately represented in the public discussion of political affairs that takes place in the news media. The ways women are depicted in news sends out important messages about their place and role in society and therefore, if women are absent or marginalised in political news, this reinforces their marginal status in the political process. Historically, women have struggled to achieve much visibility in electoral coverage, and by drawing upon data from the Loughborough Communication Research Centre’s real-time analysis of national broadcasting and press coverage, we can see that the 2015 election was no different.