Fairness and Balance in the Structural Characteristics of Newspaper Stories on the 1996 Presidential Election

Abstract

This content study of how Michigan's nine largest daily newspapers covered the 1996 presidential campaign focuses on structural characteristics of news stories that may influence readers to judge reporting as fair or biased. Specifically, the study examines institutional and newsroom influences on such characteristics. Results indicated that stories were significantly imbalanced structurally. Regardless of the candidate a reader might have supported, chances were nearly even that any encountered story was one sided, but two-sided stories were likely to be significantly imbalanced as well. Event coverage was the biggest predictor of imbalanced story structure.