A-Level Politics: Voting Behaviour and the Media

This material covers voting behaviour and the media, a compulsory part of the UK politics component of A level Politics. It complements the category's materials on elections and voting systems and on political parties by asking a different question: not how votes become seats, but why people vote the way they do and what influences them.

The first strand is long-term social factors and how they have changed. Students distinguish class dealignment from partisan dealignment, explain why age has become the strongest single predictor of voting Conservative or Labour since 2017, and follow the education divide that the 2016 referendum reinforced. Ethnicity, region and gender are covered in the flashcards and written work.

The second strand is short-term factors and models of voting: valence voting and perceived governing competence, the rational choice model, issue voting, leader image and tactical voting. These are applied to case-study elections. For 1979 the Winter of Discontent is the focus; for 1997, the collapse of the Conservatives' economic reputation after Black Wednesday, party divisions over Europe and New Labour's rebranding; for 2024, the age and education divides and a fragmented vote.

The third strand is opinion polls and the media. Students learn why polls have gone wrong (1992 and 2015), the legal rule that exit polls cannot be published before voting ends, the difference between broadcasters, bound by due impartiality under the Ofcom Broadcasting Code and the BBC Charter, and a press that is free to back a party, the arrival of televised leaders' debates in 2010, and the reasons why media influence on votes is hard to prove, including selective exposure and the reinforcement model.

The quiz has twelve questions, mostly short descriptions of voters, trends or events that students must name or explain. The flashcards give eighteen key terms and case-study facts. The written work has eight extended questions, from explaining partisan dealignment to evaluating whether short-term factors now matter more than social background, each with a reference answer and key points. The oral exam asks questions one at a time and expects case-study elections used as evidence.

Trends are described in general terms rather than with survey figures that change from one study to the next, and the material names no current politicians. It is practice material and does not reproduce any exam board's questions.

• Distinguish class dealignment from partisan dealignment
• Explain the importance of age and education in recent elections
• Apply valence, rational choice, issue voting and tactical voting to real elections
• Explain the main factors in the 1979, 1997 and 2024 general elections
• Evaluate the accuracy and influence of opinion polls
• Compare the regulation of broadcasters and newspapers and assess media influence

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the voting behaviour and the media content of the A level Politics specifications (for example Pearson Edexcel, UK Politics component, and AQA).