Press and TV as Opinion Resources in Presidential Campaigns

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Abstract
A comparison of campaign news in two successive presidential elections reveals major deficiencies in information supply. Newspaper audiences, even more than television viewers, receive confusing, heavily negative information which makes candidate appraisal difficult. Incumbency of one candidate does not lead to substantially greater emphasis on public policy issues and professional qualifications. A pattern of heavy stress on personal characteristics and daily campaign events prevails in all sources. Data come from content analysis of nearly 10,000 campaign stories from network television news and 20 U.S. daily newspapers.

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