Why Has There Been A Decline In Media Coverage Of Parliament?

There are a number of distinctive features and suggested reasons as to why a decline in coverage has occurred. Firstly, shortly after cameras were introduced to parliament, producers soon discovered that there was a limit to the amount of footage they could show without losing the interest of viewers. There began to emerge a consensus that televised proceedings on their own were rarely sufficient to endure even full-length parliamentary programmes. In a survey for the 6 O'Clock News (1994), politics was regarded as the least interesting of the main topics featured in the bulletins and parliamentary reporting was widely considered a "turn off". Soon, editors of peak time news bulletins got bored with pictures of the chamber, an observation agreed with by the audience.

The media's focus and attention turned away from parliament and moved to College Green or the Millbank studios, with MPs trooping out of the Commons in droves to be interviewed.

The conclusion is that Parliament is bypassed in the search for publicity and personal or policy promotions.

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