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Absent from most analyses of political news are detailed assessments of the candidates' nonverbal behavior, which has been shown experimentally to have considerable persuasive influence. Unlike attractiveness and other relatively stable aspects of appearance, facial displays are highly variable and reveal important moment-to-moment information about the emitter's internal state. In this paper we argue that facial displays are influential elements within political news and examine the character of televised candidate displays over four presidential election cycles. The analysis considers coverage of major party nominees shown during the general elections of 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 on the major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC). To motivate our hypotheses, we draw on the biopolitics literature that has identified three classes of displays relevant to the study of nonverbal political behavior: happiness/reassurance, anger/threat, and fear/ evasion. The analysis focuses on the relationship between the display types shown in election coverage, the context in which the displays are shown, and candidate standings in the polls. Key words: biopolitics, hedonic and agonic behavior, network news coverage, nonverbal communication, televised leader displays doi: 10.2990/27_1_78

Personal coverage of President Bush during 2001 on network television and in six U.S. newspapers became far more positive after September 11, 2001, with the largest gains found in network television coverage. Coverage of the rest of the Bush administration, in contrast, became distinctly more negative after the terrorist attacks. The vast majority of the executive branch coverage both before and after the terrorist attacks in all media outlets focused on job performance, not the questions of character, ethics and political conduct that often dominate presidential campaign coverage.

Two data sets are analyzed to determine differences in print media coverage of Elizabeth Dole and five other Republican contenders for the presidential nomination in 1999. The findings indicate that Elizabeth Dole received a differential amount and type of print media coverage that was gendered and might have hindered her candidacy.

On a Sunday early last September, a National Public Radio listener wrote to NPR Ombudsman Jeffrey A. Dvorkin to voice--in no uncertain terms--dissatisfaction with coverage of the race for the [...]

Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on television advertising in congressional campaigns, relatively little research has examined the content purchased by those advertising dollars. This study applied the Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse to a purposive sample of television spots from U.S. House and Senate races from 1986 to 2000. Acclaims (self-praise: 64%) outnumbered both attacks (criticisms: 35.5%) and defenses (refutation of attacks: 0.5%). Policy utterances comprised the bulk of the discussions in the ads (70%), while character utterances appeared less frequently (30%). Past deeds of candidates were the overwhelming focus of policy discussions (81%), while personal qualities dominated the discourse on character utterances (86%). Incumbents had a strong proclivity to acclaim (79%) more than challengers (51%) whereas challengers had a tendency to attack (49%) more than incumbents (21%). Incumbents were more likely to use past deeds to acclaim, whereas challengers used past deeds to attack. KEY CONCEPTS political advertising, congressional campaigns, TV spots, Functional Theory, acclaims, attacks, defenses, policy, character, incumbency

This content analysis of coverage of the 2000 presidential primary debates reveals that while the candidates' remarks contained more self praise than attacks or defenses, the news stories focused more on attacks and defenses., Primary campaigns, generally, and primary debates, in particular, merit scholarly attention. Primary candidates narrow the field of contenders, presenting voters with a choice in November. This process can be particularly [...]

There has been widespread discussion about a CBS News piece by Lesley Stahl on Ronald Reagan's 1984 campaign. She was critical of Reagan, but Deputy Chief of Staff Richard Darman stated that the strong and emotional pictures used in the piece overwhelmed the spoken word, thus benefiting Reagan. Close investigation reveals that this story does not live up to its reputation of validating the view that pictures are more powerful than words. In fact, the powerful pictures were accompanied by a narration that explicitly acknowledged Reagan's strengths but made only vague criticisms. In this way, it backed up the messages in the positive pictures.

It is important for journalists to write about issues in a political campaign. It is the responsibility of the candidates, however, to make the campaign issue-oriented. This essay examines how journalists report on issues and the value of that reporting. It also inventories the issues addressed by candidates in the presidential campaigns in 2000.

Research on presidential campaign coverage has mostly focused on national news sources. This article examines the more local contours of campaign coverage. News coverage of the nominating campaign in 16 top-circulating state newspapers is analyzed throughout one 10-week period in a campaign and found to vary considerably both in overall amounts and the amounts provided to individual candidates. A multivariate model that includes multiple layers of influence is estimated, and candidate coverage amounts are found to vary systematically in state newspapers depending on candidates' state-level reactions to the campaign environment, constraints at work in individual news organizations, and the shared professional norms of journalists about what makes a campaign story newsworthy. The results suggest that, depending on where they live, some citizens are provided a great deal of information about the campaign and others are provided much less. The implications of these findings for researchers studying the nature of campaign news coverage and its effects on learning are explored.

This article explores two approaches to campaign coverage in order to estimate their relative importance to state and national media coverage levels during presidential nomination campaigns: the horse race account and the campaign account. Using news coverage data from a sample of 21 state newspapers, three national newspapers, and the ABC World News Tonight, multivariate models of state and national candidate news coverage levels are estimated. The findings, although confirming the conventional wisdom that candidates who do well gain more media attention, also suggest that candidate activity can make a difference and that candidate factors can have a significant influence, whereas structural factors, such as the number of candidates competing, appear to have little influence on how the national and state media determine their distribution of coverage when other factors are present. Moreover, the state news media are strongly influenced by performance factors, but these are felt primarily through the priming influence of the national news media., There is little argument that the public' s informational environment is critical to the discourse that develops about candidates and issues and thus the outcome and meaning of elections (Just […]

Campaign construction and debates of the 1996 US presidential election prevented discussions on many relevant issues. Although misleading statements in advertisements reached a record high of more than 50%, none of the television network monitoring programs revealed the inaccuracies. Debates followed strict rules that limited or prohibited certain questions. The public passively encouraged these strategies by remaining politically apathetic.

The 1992 presidential election campaign marked the first time that non-traditional news media (e.g. talk shows) were employed as a prevalent form of campaign communication by the candidates. The present study employs a path analysis of panel data (N = 151) to assess the influence of traditional and non-traditional forms of news media in the initial phase of the presidential election campaign (i.e., early September) on the perceptions and attitudes of prospective voters both during the initial and the final phase (i.e., early November) of the campaign, as well as their voting intentions in the final phase. The results indicate that non-traditional media exert greater influence on the perceptions and attitudes during the initial phase. However, the influence of traditional news media in the initial phase demonstrates greater persistence, exerting greater impact on attitudes and voting intentions in the final phase of the campaign. The findings of this study document the impact of non-traditional news media, and contribute to the literature on media effects at different points of an election campaign.

Effects of various mass media on political learning during the 1992 presidential campaign are examined via analyses of two voter surveys conducted in different states. Three indicators of political knowledge are compared: differences on issues between parties (Republican vs. Democratic), differences on issues among candidates (Bush vs. Clinton vs. Perot), and personal knowledge about the candidates (Bush, Clinton, and Perot). Campaign media, including both news coverage and special events (conventions, debates), added significantly to the prediction of both kinds of knowledge about the candidates, even after controlling for major demographic variables and for habitual uses of news media. Of the new forms of media campaigning that became prominent in 1992, at least the interview/talk show format apparently added to voter learning about candidates. Television sources of various types tended to contribute more to learning about the candidates, whereas the newspaper was the medium more associated with knowledge of policy differences between the two major parties.

We examined Ronald Reagan's 1980 election campaign to judge the effects of his Issue of the Day (IOD) media management strategy on his image as portrayed in the print and televised news media. The IOD strategy attempts to shape the content and tone of coverage by limiting press access to Reagan, formalizing the relationship, and conveying a single message over extended periods of time. Our analysis shows Reagan had success shaping the content of the press's coverage, but not its tone. We also found that the IOD strategy had greater effects on televised news programs than on the print media.

HOW THE MEDIA LIONIZED THE 'BLEEDING HEART CONSERVATIVE' AND IGNORED THE PROBLEMS AT HUB. When Jack Kemp accepted the job as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development [...]

The negative coverage of George Bush's and Ross Perot's campaigns for president in 1992 is blamed on the liberal bias of the press in favor of Bill Clinton. In general, the press has responded that these claims are just the whining of the losing party. Much of the criticism of the campaign coverage stems from the intense analysis of campaign activity and strategy which portrayed all the contenders as cynical vote seekers., The aftermath of the second presidential debate in mid-October seemed to produce a coast-to-coast journalistic consensus. A full two weeks before Americans voted, the news media declared Bill Clinton the [...]