Newspaper Coverage of Presidential Debates

Research has established that news coverage of presidential campaigns tends to emphasize “horse race” coverage (who is ahead in the polls). However, much less is known about news reports of campaign messages, such as presidential debates. This study compared the content of presidential debates from 1980 to 2000 with newspaper coverage of those debates. Debates and newspaper coverage were content analyzed for functions (acclaims or self-praise, attacks or criticism, and defenses or refutations of attacks) and topics (policy and character). Newspaper coverage consistently and significantly over-represented attacks and defenses but under-represented acclaims. Newspaper accounts generally stress character more, and policy less, than the debates, but this relationship was not consistent across campaigns. Journalists served a gate-keeping function, reporting about 8% of what the candidates said in the debates.