A content analysis of media bias in the 2008 election

1. A Content Analysis of the 2008 Election Lane clegg Miami University Lane.clegg@gmail.com clegglc@muohio.edu Media Bias

2. Bias Bias: a concept used to account for perceived inaccuracies to be found within media representations (Hartley, 2002)

3. Review Bias toward the privileged Finding bias in opposition Preconceived bias 2004 Presidential Election “No Doubt About It: All but Fox News Tipping Obama’s Way”

4. Research Questions RQ1: Did a bias exist in election night coverage? RQ2: If there was a bias presented, was there a distinct difference between the networks? RQ3: Was bias more prominent within the segments featuring political partisans than within segments strictly reporting election results?

5. Methodology Random selection of news coverage from the day before, day of, and day after the 2008 election Evening newscast on the day before and day after One day time hour, one evening hour on election night Coded each individual story according to Zeldes

6. Methodology Who was mentioned first? Which candidate received more total time? Video featuring Republican or Democratic campaign activities? Audio clips or sound bites featuring Republican or Democratic partisans?

7. RQ1

8. RQ1 More bias for the democrat on election night and after More Democratic coverage on Tuesday.

9. RQ1 Less Republican coverage on Wednesday

10. RQ2 No significant difference between networks when talking about the Republicans Significance when talking about Democrats and giving Democrats more time CNN, FNC, FOX, NBC

11. RQ2

12. RQ2

13. RQ2

14. RQ2

15. RQ3

16. RQ3

17. RQ3

18. Limitations & Suggestions Larger sample size (FOX) Tone Non-News Programming – Keith Olberman & Bill O’Reily No preconceived bias

19. A Content analysis of the 2008 election Media Bias