Media relations are a driving force for voters during election periods, and can be divisive according to the political slant of a publication.

In Britain, the 2015 general election saw former Labour leader Ed Miliband emblazoned on the front cover of leading tabloids, invariably with a bacon sandwich in hand; since last May, prime minister David Cameron has been the subject of many satirical cartoons.

With a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU set for 23 June 2016, data published by London-based market intelligence company Signal has revealed the extent to which key stakeholders for the opposing campaigns have been mentioned, in specific context.

Publicity for both the ‘Leave’ and ‘Remain’ camps has dominated British media in recent months, a trend which shows no sign of slowing. However, stakeholders in the ‘Leave’ campaign are seemingly more vociferous, achieving 8% of the media coverage from publications surveyed. ‘Remain’ is behind, on 5%.

With an ever-changing communications landscape, however, the public are increasingly reliant on other media sources through which to form their opinions. With the potential impact a ‘Brexit’ would have on British business, traditional newspapers are enjoying less weight over voter decisions than is tradition – it is not only politicians making an impact.

Nevertheless, despite supporting different campaigns, David Cameron and Boris Johnson were cited as the top two most quoted spokespeople from the 21,000 articles on Brexit surveyed by Signal. Although only achieving 405 and 206 mentions respectively, not a huge number considering the amount of material, Cameron and Johnson continue to be leading political figures in their respective campaign groups.

Although not included in the statistics, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has now publically backed EU membership, which may well impact future press coverage.

The inclusion of blogs is also symptomatic of the changing British media. Typically less driven by an editorial slant than traditional news outlets, in recent years blogs have become increasingly favoured by voters looking for a more balanced perspective on political and economic issues.

Furthermore, with much editorial content for the private sector focused on the impact staying in, or leaving, the EU would have on businesses, stakeholders are perhaps more concerned with the opinion of corporate leaders than that of politicians. Lord Stuart Rose, former chair of retail chain Marks & Spencer, and leader of the Remain campaign, is cited in Signal’s research as the sole figure leading the business case. With 67 mentions, he lags behind Cameron and Johnson in amount of articles citing him.

Yet the inclusion of Lord Rose in Signal’s findings is demonstrative of the strong ‘Remain’ case many figures in the business community are making. Rose’s words are reinforced by a recent YouGov poll, which cites the percentage wanting to leave the EU as falling to 31%.

In a press release, David Benigson, CEO of Signal says, ‘Recent history shows that using different types of media coverage can drive voters to the polls in higher than expected numbers. In fact, academics found that non-traditional media played a bigger role in the Scottish referendum than in any previous UK political campaign. With that in mind, I’d be surprised if we didn’t see an increased focus from both campaigns across all media in the final weeks.”