The results are in
Key findings:
- News and commentary remain heavily male dominated: men were 71.5% of those telling the stories and made up 67.4% of people in the news.
- Women of colour were marginally more present in results coverage (at 2.8% of people in the news) than in the pre-election period (1.6%).
Following on from our analysis of the four weeks of coverage leading up to the Scottish election, we also undertook an analysis of the coverage of the election results, utilising the same methodology. We coded a total of 251 stories over the post-election weekend (8 May – 10 May): 21 on television, 230 in newspapers.
As in the election coverage itself, the stories were primarily told by men: 71.5% of all known writers, anchors and reporters were men. There was only one story by a woman of colour: a commentary article in the National in which a number of writers – including Assa Samaké-Roman – responded to the results. There were no women or men of colour anchors or reporters in the television coverage.
Looking now at who appeared in these stories, we coded 1471 appearances across the coverage. Perhaps unsurprisingly, only 2.9% of people in the news could not be coded in relation to gender (e.g. “a party source”) and 3.9% in terms of race (a slight increase due to popular opinion in newspapers where the gender might be given, but the race unknown). When we focus only on known sources, we see a moderate shift from the pre-election coverage. White men were still in the majority (59.3%), but this was less marked than pre-election (65.6%). The Sarwar effect continued to be reflected in the proportion of men of colour: men of colour made up 8% of people in the news, but Sarwar again accounted for a significant majority of these appearances (66.4%).
There was a slight increase in the proportion of both white women (28.4%) and women of colour (2.8%) and the election of two transgender MSPs, both of whom are people of colour, was also reflected in the profile (Figure 1).[i] Notably, not all the coverage about this historic first was positive and, indeed, two stories (one in the Daily Mail, one in the Scotsman) deliberately misgendered the new MSPs. There was also misleading commentary on Dr Q Manivannan’s immigration status, particularly (though not exclusively) in the Daily Mail.
Figure 1: People in the news by gender and race
As the election brought a reduction in the overall number of women MSPs (from 58 to 56), this marginal increase in female representation in results coverage might seem curious. However, this can be largely accounted for by two of the highest profile stories from the results: the Greens’ first constituency wins for Lorna Slater (beating SNP incumbent Angus Robertson) and Holly Bruce (beating SNP incumbent Kaukab Stewart). Stewart was the most prominent woman of colour in our pre-election sample and this was also the case in the results coverage with Stewart appearing 17 times, though typically briefly, in articles that focused on Bruce and the Greens.
Among the women of colour elected to the Scottish Parliament, Iris Duane, the Greens’ MSP for Glasgow, was by far the most prominent, appearing in 14 stories. There are various ways to explain this relative prominence. Notably, Duane was at the same count as Holly Bruce and a photograph of Duane, Bruce and Partrick Harvie was widely used to illustrate the Greens’ progress at these elections. Duane was nearly always identified as a transgender candidate (and so appears in the Trans category in Figure 1) and there were a number of stories focused on the historic first election of transgender MSPs. Furthermore, stories from the central belt – and particularly from Glasgow and Edinburgh – were particularly prominent. However, it is notable that Duane was seen a lot more than she was heard from: she was photographed in eight stories but only quoted in two.
Focusing on the broader sample, 26.4% of all known people in the news (i.e. excluding people described only as “party source” or “insider”) were quoted. Although the numbers are small, it is nevertheless notable that the pattern we observed in previous studies where people of colour were more likely to be seen than heard (a pattern not replicated with white people) persists in this sample (Figure 2).
Figure 2: People in the news who are quoted and photographed, by gender and race
The other women of colour elected in 2026 were barely visible in the three days following the election. The SNP’s Simita Kumar – MSP for Edinburgh South Western – appeared in four stories (in the Scotsman and National) and was quoted twice and pictured twice. A brief profile of Yi-pei Chou Turvey, the Liberal Democrat MSP for North East Scotland, appeared in a Herald story identifying some of the “class of 2026” but she was neither pictured nor quoted. Michelle Campbell (the SNP MSP for Renfrewshire North and Cardonald) did not appear in any of the stories we coded.
Of course, there will be many newly elected MSPs who did not appear in the immediate post-election coverage so we should be wary of over-stating the significance of this. Nevertheless, in a context where women of colour remain a very marginal presence in election news this is worthy of note.
[i] Q Manivannan identifies as non-binary and so was coded as such throughout. Iris Duane was coded as trans when she was identified as such and was coded as a woman when she was not.