Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : General election campaign communication in perspective / Dominic Wring -- Labour's political strategy / Philip Gould -- Conservative party strategy / Gavin Barwell -- Liberal democrat strategy : a new high watermark for the liberal democrats / Chris Rennard -- The Labour campaign / Greg Cook -- The conservative campaign / David Canzini -- The Charles Kennedy Campaign / Jackie Rowley -- Political communication : party advertising in the general election / Jennifer van Heerde -- Constituency campaigning in 2005 : ever more centralization? / Justin Fisher ... [et al.] -- The Internet and the UK general election / John Downey and Scott Davidson -- The public and the polls / Roger Mortimore and Simon Atkinson -- Poll methodology, weighting and adjustment systems / Andrew Cooper -- Internet versus conventional polls in the general election / Peter Kellner -- Challenges facing the pollsters next time / Nick Sparrow -- Looking through the other end of the microscope : how the public experienced the general election campaign / Robert Worcester, Roger Mortimore and Paul Baines -- Viewer and voters : attitudes to television coverage of the general election / Vanessa Hyland -- Hearts or minds? Leader evaluations by men and women in the general election / Kristi Winters and Rosie Campbell -- Reconnecting with the viewers : Sky news' election coverage / Adam Boulton -- Politics as an appearance and reality show : the hermeneutics of suspicion / Michael Billig -- The 'Take a break' campaign? National print media reporting of the election / David Deacon, Dominic Wring and Peter Golding -- Amateurs or adversaries? Local journalists' coverage of the UK non-general election / Bob Franklin and Stephen Cushion -- 2005 : themes and future questions? / Jane Green.

Drawing on the perspectives of strategists, pollsters & journalists, this volume examines the specific issue of communications during the 2005 general election, rather than the broader issues of campaigns & campaigning.