The Influence of news media ihn U.S. presidential elections

In: Massenmedien und Wahlen, S. 171-189

Abstract

"Presidental elections in the U.S. have changed substantially in the past two decades and in ways that have greatly enhanced the influcence of the news media. In the context of these changes, recent research on television and newspaper election coverage in the United States, concentrating specifically on the 1972 and 1976 elections is presented and analyzed. This research indicates that journalistic values have a substantial effect on election reporting. Because of news values, coverage tends to emphasize the strategic game played by the candidates, thereby de-emphasizing questions of national policy and leadership. Journalists also tend to overplay certain candidates and processes. Finally, reporters tend to emphasize issues other than the ones being stressed by the candidates. 'Candidates' issues' generally do not meet the media's criteria for newsworthiness. The voters' perceptions of the campaign are clearly influenced by the nature of election news. From news exposure, voters become more alert to the candidates' successes and failures than to their politics; become much better informed about press-emphasized candidates and relationships than about others; develop images of the candidates that are dominated by impressions of personality and not impressions of abilities; and acquire fragmented information of the candidates' platforms and proposals. The news media's present influence on U.S. presidential elections is unwarranted by institutional considerations. If the media are neither so trivial nor so self-interested as critics suggest, they also are much less adequate as a linking mechanism than is commonly assumed." (author's abstract)