Partisan and Structural Balance of Local Television Election Coverage of Incumbent and Open Gubernatorial Elections

Abstract

Local television stories and segments covering the 2002 open race for governor in Michigan were compared with the same stations' coverage of the 1998 election in which an incumbent governor ran against a challenger. Coverage of the 2002 race was more even handed toward the Republican and Democratic candidates, as predicted. Overall, multistory segments making up a day's news coverage were more balanced than the individual stories, consistent with previous research in 1998. Segments leading newscasts were more balanced than those run inside. Election stories that ran alone in a day's newscast were also more balanced. However, stories covered by reporters were less likely to be balanced than stories covered by anchors, contrary to predictions.