Television and the press in Britain appear to exemplify the two extremes of a continuum from nonpartisan to partisan or from impartial to partial. Television continues to be the principal source of information about politics for most people in Britain, despite the enormous changes that have occurred in the country's broadcast media landscape in the past decade. Television news also continues to be the most trusted and most credible source of information at election time. Newspapers reach a much smaller audience, and they also offer a far more partisan perspective on politics. At election time, the tabloids in particular are known to be screamingly partisan. One of the most notorious examples of this was the front page of the Sun, the country's most popular tabloid, on election day in 1992. With the head of Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock pictured inside a light bulb, the Sun asked: “If Kinnock Wins Today, Will the Last Person to Leave Britain Please Turn Out the Lights?”

Developments in the 1990s may have signaled some movement away from both ends of this continuum toward the center. In the press, these developments include the remarkable flipping of newspaper partisanship from Conservative dominant to Labour dominant in the 1997 election. In addition, on television, viewers have many more channels nowadays, and this provides more opportunities for people either to tune out of politics altogether or to follow news continuously on dedicated news channels.