The Role of Differing Host Styles in Fox News’ Prime Time Coverage of Health Care Reform in August 2009

Abstract

Much research has looked at individual Fox News programs as a means to ascertain how the network operates in a variety of contexts, but nearly no attention has been paid to the role of individual program hosts. The host plays an important role in branding news programs and thus directly affects a network’s self-presentation and credibility. This host-based, meso-level study examines how the three Fox News prime time hosts employed differing approaches toward furthering the network’s themes opposing health care reform in August 2009.

Keywords

broadcast content analysis news and reporting political communication qualitative methodology

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