Metacoverage and Mediatization in US Presidential Elections (original) (raw)

Framing the Press and Publicity Process in U.S., British, and German General Election Campaigns: A Comparative Study of Metacoverage

The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 2006

This study compares metacoverage-news about the press and publicity processes-in broadcast coverage of the 2000 U.S. presidential election, the 2001 British general election, and the 2002 German general election. The authors observed metacoverage topics separately from press and publicity frames. The authors theorized that the presence of metacoverage topics in campaign news reflects the influence of system-level factors on campaign communication and, furthermore, that the use of press and publicity frames by journalists is influenced by a country's political communication culture. Press and publicity topics are particularly more frequent in U.S. news than in British news, corroborating systemic differences between the countries. However, press and publicity topics co-occur with, and press and publicity frames contextualize, the same rank order of campaign topics in all three countries, demonstrating convergence among political communication cultures in these three democracies.

Esser, Frank & D’Angelo, Paul (2006). Framing the Press and Publicity Process in German, British and U.S. General Election Campaigns: A Comparative Study of Metacoverage. Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 11:3, 44-66

This study compares metacoverage-news about the press and publicity processes-in broadcast coverage of the 2000 U.S. presidential election, the 2001 British general election, and the 2002 German general election. The authors observed metacoverage topics separately from press and publicity frames. The authors theorized that the presence of metacoverage topics in campaign news reflects the influence of system-level factors on campaign communication and, furthermore, that the use of press and publicity frames by journalists is influenced by a country's political communication culture. Press and publicity topics are particularly more frequent in U.S. news than in British news, corroborating systemic differences between the countries. However, press and publicity topics co-occur with, and press and publicity frames contextualize, the same rank order of campaign topics in all three countries, demonstrating convergence among political communication cultures in these three democracies.

Esser, Frank & Spanier, Bernd (2005). News Management as News. How Media Politics Leads to Metacoverage. Journal of Political Marketing, 4:4, 27-58.

It is well known that voters prefer candidates of their own race or ethnicity, but in general this preference does not have to compete with partisanship. In other words, most voters are given consistent voting cues from both race or ethnicity and partisanship. But in rare cases the partisanship of minority candidates is out of sync with those of most voters of their shared race or ethnicity, e.g., a Republican Mexican-American or a Democratic Cuban-American. In such instances, will Latino voters choose to support their co-ethnic? Or will they instead vote for the candidate of their political party? This paper examines the attitudes and behaviors of Latino voters faced with such a choice in a recent Central California Congressional election. In this instance, partisan group identification cues predominated over ethnic group identification cues, and most Latinos chose to support the Democratic Anglo candidate.

Media logic in election campaign coverage

European Journal of Communication, 2013

The media logic thesis holds that the content of political news is the product of news values and format requirements that media make use of to attract news consumers. This study tests whether three content characteristics -personalized, contest and negative coverage -manifest a single media logic by analysing whether they co-vary over time. It also tests the implicit assumption underlying the media logic thesis that media adhere to a single media logic as one institution. A semantic network analysis measured the degree to which television and newspaper coverage of five Dutch national election campaigns (1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010) contained the three content characteristics. The study shows that personalized, contest and negative coverage form three indicators of a single logic that is shared by different media. Since the turn of the century, Dutch political news has simultaneously become decreasingly personalized, less focused on the contest and less negative.

Framing of Electoral Processes: The Stages of the Campaign as a Moderator of the Presence of Political Frames in the News

Palabra Clave, 2018

Mass media plays a crucial role during the election campaigns, because, by promoting a particular framing to present issues and candidates involved in the campaigns citizens are granted access to the political debate. To analyze the political framing carried out by the media during the 2015 gubernatorial election campaign of Nuevo León, Mexico, a content analysis of the news stories published by television and the press was developed. Findings made it possible to detect a different use of news frames by both media. While the frame of strategic game dominated in television, the press emphasized a treatment of conflict. In addition, a moderation effect of the campaign stages was observed in the use of different news frames, increasing the use of strategic game and debate and political agreement frames by television, while the press maintained a constant presence of news frames.

Indicating mediatization? Two decades of election campaign television coverage

European Journal of Communication, 2013

This article traces mediatization in the coverage of election campaigns in Danish and German television news over the past 20 years (1990–2009). The analysis is based on news content analyses focusing on the major candidates in the two countries. Considering that Denmark and Germany are similar but nevertheless different countries, the data show remarkable similarities in the coverage of elections and how it changes over time. Observing the amount of horse-race coverage, personalization, visualization and negativity, most findings fitted the mediatization hypothesis at a first glance. At a second glance, multivariate analyses controlling for important other variables confirmed the notion of mediatization for only three of the five content indicators studied. In addition, the mediatization process apparently stalled in the 1990s.

"The Problem of Getting on the Media Agenda: A Case Study in Competing Logics of Campaign Coverage"

In Kathleen E. Kendall, (Ed.), Presidential Campaign Discourse: Strategic Communication Problems, SUNY Press, 1995, 35-67. , 1995

Studies of political campaign coverage generally focus on variables such as the balance of personality versus issue coverage, the themes and narratives in the coverage, possible bias toward or against a party or candidate, length of sound bites on TV news, those aspects of a candidate’s policies and rhetoric that receive the most and least coverage in the press, and so on. Such explorations assume, of course, that candidates receive a significant amount of news coverage in the first place. Yet most of the candidates for the presidency in 1992, as in other years, received very little or no national press coverage. Of the more than sixty candidates who entered the first primary in New Hampshire, only eight were routinely covered in the national news media: George Bush and Pat Buchanan of the Republican Party, and Bill Clinton, Bob Kerrey, Tom Harkin, Douglas Wilder, Paul Tsongas, and Jerry Brown of the Democratic Party. The only other candidate to receive extensive national news coverage during the campaign was independent Ross Perot. This chapter will explore the patterns of coverage and noncoverage of U.S. presidential political campaigns through a case study of one of the candidates who received very little national press coverage: Democrat Larry Agran. (c) 1995 Joshua Meyrowitz. All rights reserved. See Lawrence J. Mullen review at: https://www.academia.edu/1365671/Transformation\_in\_the\_press\_political\_public\_relationship\_presidential\_campaigning\_and\_political\_imagery