The term “horse-race campaign coverage” refers to the news media’s tendency to use a game framework for reporting about political events. The candidates and political parties represent dueling sides in a pitched battle to win the vote on Election Day. Public opinion tracking polls are used as a scorecard to illustrate who is leading the pack and who is behind. The candidates’ issue positions become part of the game, viewed through the lens of strategic maneuvering to capture the support of a particular sociodemographic group. Political analysts are interviewed for their expert opinions on which candidate has the lead and what it will take for a particular candidate to win the race.
Studies of media coverage of political campaigns over time have clearly demonstrated that horse-race coverage has become the dominant theme in election news.
According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ), 52 percent of total media coverage (print, broadcast, cable, online) of the Campaign of 2008 was devoted to the horse race. These stories accounted for 53 percent of all print media stories about the campaign and 54.3 percent of the election coverage on the five most popular political news Web sites (AOL, Yahoo, Google News, CNN.com, and MSNBC.com).
By the Campaign of 2012, horse-race coverage declined slightly, constituting 38 percent of the coverage of the final two months of the campaign, and also playing a less prominent role during the primary season, according to PEJ. However, PEJ noted that during the three-week period surrounding the presidential debates, horse-race coverage spiked to 47 percent of all stories—the highest for any point of the campaign, and also constituting the most dominant narrative of the debates themselves.
Political scientists are concerned about horse-race coverage because it often comes at the expense of in-depth analysis of complex issues, leaving voters with little quality information on which to base their vote. Moreover, while such coverage does create a sense of excitement among individuals who are highly engaged in politics, for many other citizens, particularly those without strong partisan attachments, it may lead to more cynicism about political candidates and a feeling of detachment from the electoral process.
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Pew Research Center and Project for Excellence in Journalism. “The Final Days of the Media Campaign 2012.” Project for Excellence in Journalism, November 19, 2012. http://www.journalism.org/2012/11/19/final-days-media-campaign-2012/. Accessed September 5, 2015.
Project for Excellence in Journalism. “The Color of News.” Journalism.org, October 29, 2008. http://www.journalism.org/2008/10/29/the-color-of-news/.
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Rosenstiel, Tom, Mark Jurkowitz, and Tricia Sartor. “How the Media Covered the 2012 Primary Campaign.” Project for Excellence in Journalism, April 23, 2012. http://www.journalism.org/2012/04/23/romney-report/. Accessed September 5, 2015.