Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly · 1998 · 38 citations · 0 references
Social SciencesPolitical CommunicationPolitical ScienceElection CommunicationMass CommunicationMedia StudiesBiasElection News CoverageMedia Bias AnalysisMedia EffectsNews AudiencesNews MediaBite TestEqual OpportunityMedia BiasNews Television AudiencesPolitical Sound BitesPresidential Campaign CoveragePresidential Campaign SpeechesSound Bite Coverage
This study is the first longitudinal study to address two separate lines of research—sound bite research and news bias research—within a single network TV news study. Presidential and vice presidential campaign stories from Campaign '92 (ninety-nine newscasts) and Campaign '96 (100 newscasts) were analyzed to test the anti-incumbent bias hypothesis. The overall conclusions of this study were that (a) the anti-incumbent bias hypothesis received only minimal support, and (b) in both campaigns, Republicans tended to be negatively bitten more often than Democrats. In this respect, the networks were not equal-opportunity biters.