1. Circus, Horse Race, or Policy Debate: California Newspaper Coverage of the 2003 Recall Election.
- Author
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Godwin, Marcia L.
- Subjects
- *
POLITICAL science , *MASS media , *ELECTIONS , *POLICY sciences , *RECALL elections - Abstract
Political scientists and communications scholars have long documented the tendency of the media to focus on "horse race" elections stories at the expense of policy analysis. In this paper I identify the emergence of the circus metaphor to characterize elections as a hybrid form of political theater, media spectacle, and tabloid justice journalism. I examine the relative number of horse race, circus/spectacle and policy stories on the 2003 recall of California Governor Gray Davis and election of actor Arnold Schwarzenegger as his replacement. I find that major California papers varied in the tone and substance of their coverage. All of the newspapers educated their readerships about the recall process. Ironically, the newspaper paper with the highest level of horse race stories also informatively compare and contrast campaigns. Circus/spectacle stories did not dominate coverage, but exceeded the number of articles focusing policy issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2004
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