The News Stories that have influenced Election 2020
Every month, Core Research asks people about the news stories they have become aware about and how important these stories are in their lives. This provides us with the Cultural Index - a score which tells us what news story matter the most in Irish society. With nearly 1,000 news stories measured since 2015, we have a large database and a strong understanding of the stories which resonate with the public.
When we carried out a special analysis on news stories of the general election campaign 2020, it revealed some interesting results. Analysing 18 stories which occurred in the first two weeks of the campaign (Wednesday 15th - Wednesday 29th January), has provided a perspective of the news headlines which may influence voter outcome.
The top 5 news stories of the campaign
- 🏡 Sinn Féin promises 100,000 social and affordable homes.
- 🧓🏼 Labour promise to keep the pension age at 66 years old.
- 🚫 Fine Gael commit to not going into Government with Sinn Féin.
- 🎤 Sinn Féin excluded from RTÉ and Virgin Media’s leaders debates (subsequently reversed).
- 💨 Leo Varadkar admits to having taken illegal drugs "a long time ago."
As our Review of 2019 and our Predict 2020 report suggested, housing has dominated the general election. While health is important, most parties agree on Sláintecare, and therefore housing stories were always going to be critiqued by a generation of voters who rent.
59% of adults were aware of Sinn Féin’s housing proposal, and 68% said this was important to them. In comparison, 41% said they knew about Fianna Fáil promising a saving scheme for first time buyers that would top up savings by one-third and 41% knew about Fine Gael saying it will expand the Help to Buy scheme to €30,000 for first time buyers. Sinn Féin’s housing message has had the greatest cut-through and as a result is the top story of this General Election Cultural Index.
