The Sound Bites, the Biters, and the Bitten: A Two-Campaign Test of the Anti-Incumbent Bias Hypothesis in Network TV News
- 1 December 1998
- journal article
- review article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly
- Vol. 75 (4) , 719-729
- https://doi.org/10.1177/107769909807500407
Abstract
This study is the first longitudinal study to address two separate lines of research—sound bite research and news bias research—within a single network TV news study. Presidential and vice presidential campaign stories from Campaign '92 (ninety-nine newscasts) and Campaign '96 (100 newscasts) were analyzed to test the anti-incumbent bias hypothesis. The overall conclusions of this study were that (a) the anti-incumbent bias hypothesis received only minimal support, and (b) in both campaigns, Republicans tended to be negatively bitten more often than Democrats. In this respect, the networks were not equal-opportunity biters.Keywords
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