The dependence of election coverage on political institutions: Political competition and policy framing in Germany and the United Kingdom

Election coverage is often assumed to be different to everyday political coverage. We argue that this depends on political institutions. In majoritarian countries, where elections choose governments, election coverage should decisively move towards political competition and away from policy. In consensual countries, where coalitions are based on policy negotiations, there should be a less pronounced shift towards political competition and away from policy. To test this argument, we use an automatic coding system to study 0.9 billion words in Die Welt for 12 years and in the Financial Times for 30 years. The results support our institutional hypothesis.

Swedish Media, Fundamental Values and the Opinion Corridor in the 2018 Election

Sweden is usually ranking very highly in terms of global democracy and transparency indexes. The 2018 elections in Sweden were very divisive and bitterly fought, where there was an open conflict between the mainstream political establishment parties and the anti-political establishment Swedish Democrats. Mainstream Swedish media were not neutral bystanders in the election coverage, in the months before and after the September 2018 elections. The election coverage framing featured an idealised national myth that uses the notion of various acceptable fundamental values to define it, and an idealised Swedish society. Those actors whose values and norms that do not fit these ideals were subjected to attack and derision within a concept of consensus enforcement known as the opinion corridor, which is akin to the spiral of silence.

Ethnic Media Election Coverage: A Content Analysis Method

Politicians’ recent attentiveness to ethnic media coincides with the emergence of diverse societies where linguistic, cultural, and racial minority groups are an increasingly important demographic. Not much is known, however, about how ethnic media cover elections. This paper outlines a methodology for examining election coverage by ethnic newspapers, drawing upon best practices used to analyze election news content in mainstream media, the theoretical underpinnings of journalism practice, and the author’s experience with coding ethnic news publications.

Ethnic Media Election Coverage: A Content Analysis Method

Politicians’ recent attentiveness to ethnic media coincides with the emergence of diverse societies where linguistic, cultural, and racial minority groups are an increasingly important demographic. Not much is known, however, about how ethnic media cover elections. This paper outlines a methodology for examining election coverage by ethnic newspapers, drawing upon best practices used to analyze election news content in mainstream media, the theoretical underpinnings of journalism practice, and the author’s experience with coding ethnic news publications.

Elections in Canada and Russia in 2019: a comparative analysis of cross-national media coverage

In 2019, Canada and Russia went through election campaigns in their respective countries. While Canada voted at the federal level, Russia held regional and municipal elections, and therefore the scale and outcome of these two campaigns cannot be compared per se. Yet shifting a focus to media coverage, this paper explores Canada-Russia relations at a given moment in time, including the extent to which disinformation took place on either side. The two countries were actively involved in cross-commenting about the situation on the ground. Russian English-language media outlets were visibly more anti-Trudeau in nature in their Canadian election coverage, while Canadian authorities called on their Russiancounterparts to respect freedoms of assembly during pre-election opposition rallies in Moscow. However, in a modern highly interconnected world, where should the border between news reporting/tweeting and an attempt to interfere in elections be located; and how do these efforts advance each country’s interests?

Horse-race coverage (Election Campaign Coverage)

The term horse-race coverage refers to one of the most prominent types of election coverage (e.g., Schmuck et al., 2017) that strongly focuses on winners and losers (who is ahead?). Typically, it is related to opinion polls and/or election outcomes. Quite often also “a language of war or games to describe the campaign” (Aalberg et al., 2012, p. 167) is involved in this kind of news stories, although – in a narrow sense – this aspect does not seem to be an essential part of the concept of horse-race coverage (e.g., Banducci & Hanretty, 2014). Regarding the conceptual definitions, a development in the terminology may be noticed: “The original horse race news became part of the game frame which was later discussed as part of the strategy frame.” (Aalberg et al., 2012, p. 166) In other words, the term ‘game frame’ is sometimes used synonymously with ‘horse-race’ coverage (although some scholars discuss whether these concepts can actually be used synonymously; e.g., Banducci & Hanretty, 2014; de Vreese 2005; Valentino et al., 2001). Field of application/theoretical foundation: Horse-race coverage is a very popular concept that is analyzed in research on the media coverage of politics, especially in times of elections and election campaigns. References/combination with other methods of data collection: The analysis of horse-race coverage may be combined or compared with opinion polls and election outcomes. Furthermore, experimental studies that analyze potential effects of the horse-race coverage on recipients (e.g., political cynicism) exist (e.g., Lavrakas et al., 1991; Valentino et al., 2001). Example: Although often analyzed, the operationalization of horse-race coverage in quantitative content analyses differs. Aalberg et al. (2012) review existing concepts and operationalizations and provide a set of coding instructions, which are cited below. Coding instructions (direct quotation) by Aalberg et al. (2012, p. 177): Game frame [respectively horse-race coverage] Does the story deal with opinion polls and politicians’ or parties’ standing in the polls? This variable has two codes: 0 = no, 1 = yes. Coders should type 1 if the news story at least once mentions opinion polls and the standing of political parties or individual candidates in these. Coders should also type 1 if the news story includes references to generic ‘polls’ or ‘the opinion’ and the standing of political parties or candidates according to ‘polls’ or ‘the opinion’. Otherwise coders should type 0. Does the story deal with politicians, parties or other actors in relation to potential election outcomes and/or coalitions/government formation? This variable has two codes: 0 = no, 1 = yes. Coders should type 1 if the news story reports or speculates about election results or government/coalition formations. Otherwise coders should type 0. Does the story deal with politicians, parties or other actors winning or losing (elections, debates or in general)? This variable has two codes: 0 = no, 1 = yes. Coders should type 1 if the news story at least once refers to whether politicians, parties or other actors are winning or losing with respect to elections, debates or in general. Otherwise coders should type 0. Does the story make use of a language of sports or war? This variable has two codes: 0 = no, 1 = yes. Coders should type 1 if the news story at least once makes use of a language of sports and war, such as battle, competition, winning, or fight. Only exempted expression is ‘campaign’. Otherwise coders should type 0. References Aalberg, T., Strömbäck, J., & de Vreese, C.H. (2012). The framing of politics as strategy and game: A review of concepts, operationalizations and key findings. Journalism, 13(2), 162-178. Banducci, S., & Hanretty, C. (2014). Comparative determinants of horse-race coverage. European Political Science Review, 6(4), 621-640. de Vreese C.H. (2005). The Spiral of Cynicism reconsidered. European Journal of Communication, 20(3), 283–301. Lavrakas, P.J., Holley, J.K., & Miller, P.V. (1991). Public reactions to polling news during the 1988 presidential election campaign. In P.J. Lavrakas, & J.K. Holley (Eds.). Polling and presidential election coverage (pp. 151-183). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Schmuck, D., Heiss, R., Matthes, J., Engesser, S., & Esser, F. (2017). Antecedents of strategic game framing in political news coverage. Journalism, 18(8), 937-955. Valentino, N.A., Beckmann, M.N., & Buhr, T.A. (2001). A spiral of cynicism for some: The contingent effects of campaign news frames on participation and confidence in government. Political Communication, 18(4), 347–367.

‘Alien Elections’: Neighboring State News on the 2018 Russian Presidential Elections

News media tend to reflect voices in the political establishment while covering international events. Is it still true when almost half of the national audience speak the language of the country featured in the coverage? In this paper, we present an analysis of 19.5k news messages collected from Russian-language Ukrainian news outlets covering the 2018 presidential elections in Russia. Using a mixed-method approach (topic modeling and qualitative reading), we identify key topics and stories and evaluate the extent of personalization in the election coverage. We find three central angles: the focus on polls and election results, election preparations in Crimea, and Vladimir Putin’s victory. The elections are linked predominantly to Crimean issues through the date of the elections, each candidate’s stance on the subject, the election management in the region, and other countries’ reactions to the results. Such coverage has an accusatory bias; it stresses the legal status of the Crimean referendum and the Russian authorities’ actions and reports the pressures on locals by authorities, especially the Crimean Tatars. Not linked directly to Crimea, other angles are less emotionally charged. Political personalization of the discussion has a contradictory nature. On one hand, the overwhelming majority of the messages mention public figures. On the other hand, the coverage of the figures is limited and omits their traits. Moreover, at times, public figures are replaced by non-personalized symbols (e.g., Kremlin, Russian invaders). However, if the former’s coverage is predominantly neutral, the latter’s coverage is more prone to negative and loaded statements.

Those who have the power get the coverage – Female politicians in campaign coverage in Austria over time

Politics in Austria is still a male business. Even though in 2017, women occupied 34 percent of the seats in Austria’s Nationalrat, female MPs are still underrepresented. Moreover, previous studies have shown that women receive substantially less media coverage than men do and this, for instance, disadvantages female politicians to male politicians in election campaigns. Our study seeks to contribute to this debate by adding a longitudinal perspective and substantially underpinning it with empirical data. We use quantitative content analysis to examine whether the election coverage of female politicians in Austrian news media has changed between 2008 and 2017. Our findings show low visibility of female politicians in Austrian campaign coverage that is even decreasing over time; furthermore, the political role a female politician occupies plays a crucial role for her media visibility.

More Than Just Gender: Exploring Contextual Influences on Media Bias of Political Candidates

Gender bias in the media coverage of political elections has long been theorized as a major obstacle to women’s success in elections and their institutional representation. However, this view of persistent media bias against women politicians is increasingly subject to pressure by inconsistent evidence of size and patterns of gender bias. This paper argues that some of these inconsistencies derive from a lack of attention to contextual influences of electoral coverage. This study analyzes gender bias in the amount and content of media coverage in the run-up to Swiss federal elections in 2015 by means of a quantitative content analysis. Drawing on an extensive sample of print, online and audiovisual election coverage from the most important tabloid and broadsheet media of three different language regions, the results reveal mixed evidence of gender bias: On the one hand, women candidates remain underrepresented in Swiss media. On the other hand, however, once they are covered by the media, candidates are overwhelmingly presented in a gender-neutral way. Several differences emerge between language regions and media type. Extending the traditional gender bias hypothesis to account for contextual influences, the study illustrates that the geo-cultural and media-specific contextual influences of election coverage impinge on the gendered mediation of candidates together with known drivers of political communication, such as incumbency, the electoral system, and party ideology.