<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Previous studies have shown that experts appearing in the media are increasingly speculating about trends and developments rather than presenting their own research. With respect to political journalism, this raises the question of whether increased use of expert sources has also led to an increased focus on process relative to substance in election news coverage. The study, conducted in 1998 and 2007, surveys what types of experts are referred to in the election coverage, what topics the experts comment on (in particular whether they focus on substance or process), and whether the number and types of experts as well as topics have changed over time. As expected, there is an increase in newspapers’ references to experts in their election campaign coverage. However, contrary to our expectations, in both 1998 and 2007, there is an equal number of articles referring to the election campaign’s political content (i.e., they mentioned the topics promoted by the political actors during the campaign) and to the political process. And extremely few articles included meta-discussions.</p></abstract>

Previous studies have shown that experts appearing in the media are increasingly speculating about trends and developments rather than presenting their own research. With respect to political journalism, this raises the question of whether increased use of expert sources has also led to an increased focus on process relative to substance in election news coverage. The study, conducted in 1998 and 2007, surveys what types of experts are referred to in the election coverage, what topics the experts comment on (in particular whether they focus on substance or process), and whether the number and types of experts as well as topics have changed over time. As expected, there is an increase in newspapers’ references to experts in their election campaign coverage. However, contrary to our expectations, in both 1998 and 2007, there is an equal number of articles referring to the election campaign’s political content (i.e., they mentioned the topics promoted by the political actors during the campaign) and to the political process. And extremely few articles included meta-discussions.

Experts in Election News Coverage

Ph.D., Professor, Centre for Journalism, Department of Political Science, University of Southern Denmark

Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Southern Denmark

Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Centre for Journalism, Department of Political Science, University of Southern Denmark

Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Southern Denmark

Nordicom Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"subtitle":"Process or Substance?","article-title":"Experts in Election News Coverage"}

Previous studies have shown that experts appearing in the media are increasingly speculating about trends and developments rather than presenting their own...

Experts in Election News Coverage

Published Online: Jan 30, 2017

Page range: 45 - 58

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0104

Keywords
process news, meta-coverage, election coverage, experts

© 2011 Erik Albæk et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Experts in Election News Coverage

Published Online: Jan 30, 2017

Page range: 45 - 58

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/nor-2017-0104

Keywordsprocess news, meta-coverage, election coverage, experts

© 2011 Erik Albæk et al., published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
process news, meta-coverage, election coverage, experts