Does the Press’ Focus on Issues vs. Character Match Candidates’ Focus?

• In Event: Voters and Communication in Advanced Democracies

Abstract

News coverage of candidates during election campaigns can influence who wins and who loses elections. Although candidates can decide how much of their campaign messaging to spend on portrayals of policy issue stances versus personal character, they have less control over how their messaging is represented in the news. We know little about how news representations of candidates’ self-portrayals (via quotations and paraphrases of candidate statements selected by journalists) compare with journalists’ portrayals of the candidates (via the portion of news coverage of candidates that is not cribbed directly from candidates’ messaging). Do candidates and the press present similar or different portrayals? We investigate this question using systematic content analysis of national news coverage of election campaigns across ten western democracies (20 elections in total), and find that while candidates talk about issues (as captured in their quoted/paraphrased remarks in the news), the press tends to downplay issues and talk more about candidates’ character. The findings have implications for candidates’ campaign strategies, for the relationship between the press and candidates, and for normative questions about the press’ role in contemporary democracy.

Authors

• Camilla Bjarnøe, University of Southern Denmark

• Amber Ellen Boydstun, University of California, Davis

• James Adams, University of California, Davis