Informing Voters? Politics, Media and the New Zealand Election 2008 examines important issues and questions surrounding political communication during the 2008 general election campaign in New Zealand.

These issues include:

• The degree to which the print and electronic media’s coverage focused on the ‘horse-race and hoopla’ of the election campaign.
• How and to what extent political parties and candidates utilised online campaigning to communicate with voters.
• The effectiveness of party election advertising.
• What we can learn from debates and interviews of party leaders.
• The extent and nature of media coverage given to minor parties.
• A major finding of the book is that politicians and the media performed a reasonable job of ‘informing’ voters at the 2008 election.

1. Introduction: Mediated Politics - Geoffrey Craig, Janine Hayward, Chris Rudd
2. Party Strategy and the 2008 Election - Bryce Edwards
3. The Election Campaign on Television News - Margie Comrie
4. Leaders’ Debates and News Media Interviews - Geoffrey Craig
5. ‘Vote for me’: Political Advertising - Claire Robinson
6. Newspaper Coverage - Chris Rudd and Janine Hayward
7. The Maori Party and Newspaper Coverage - Ann Sullivan
8. Online Media - Peter John Chen
9. Conclusion: Don’t shoot the messenger? - Geoffrey Craig, Janine Hayward and Chris Rudd