ENGA2 - Investigation into the representation of the May 2011 Alternative Vote Referendum in articles from the Telegraph, Guardian, and Sun newspapers

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Investigation into the representation of the May 2011 Alternative Vote Referendum in articles from the Telegraph, Guardian, and Sun newspapers.

I have chosen to analyse three texts from the time of the May 2011 Alternative Vote Referendum. One from the Guardian newspaper, in favour of introducing the Alternative Vote (AV) system, and one each from the Telegraph and the Sun newspapers, both against AV, and the referendum itself.

The first text is an article from the May 3rd edition of the Telegraph, entitled 'Vote to thwart this destructive meddling". I expect The Telegraph, being a traditionally right-of-centre publication and oftentimes supporter of the Conservative Party, would be opposed to the AV referendum and AV itself, as that is the policy of the Conservatives, and this article confirms that, as it derides the system and the referendum throughout.

In the first paragraph of the article, the author states that "this referendum is a thoroughly unwelcome distraction from the far more pressing matters facing the nation". This independent clause suggests that the AV referendum is bad for Britain, as it will distract the public and politicians from issues much more serious. The common noun 'distraction' is used within the