Horse Race Reporting
Horse race reporting from the American horse race journalism (in German about horse racing journalism) describes a form of journalistic reporting that focuses on the competitive and confrontational character of politics. Especially during election campaigns, the political controversy is reported in the form of a horse race or game scheme. The vocabulary used by journalists is borrowed from sports reporting . Examples of this include: Party A and Party B are in a head-to-head race; Party A back in front; Party B by a large margin; Etc.
Use of surveys
The frequent use of survey results is characteristic of horse race reporting. With their help, the election campaign can be presented as an exciting course of mood changes and the (unsuccessful) success of campaign activities can supposedly be measured directly using a representative opinion of the population. According to news value theory, the advantages of surveys lie in the following news factors : Surveys are up-to-date, relate to prominent status persons, focus on political confrontation and offer potential for surprises.
Evidence of an increase in horse race coverage
An increase in horse race reporting in western, media-dominated democracies has been empirically proven by numerous studies. In the USA, this form of reporting was first observed in the 1970s and addressed within media and political science. In Germany, Frank Brettschneider, in particular, is examining the frequency of survey reporting and Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck is examining its potential effects on recipients and voters.
In the process, Brettschneider noted a ten-fold increase in the topic of surveys in the German quality press between 1980 and 2002. In addition, there will be more reports about surveys in the media if all forecasts speak for a close election result. Then surveys seem to have a high information value for the recipients. In the federal German electoral system with the five percent hurdle, there is also a particular interest in surveys if it is not clear whether one or more of the small parties can overcome this hurdle.
Criticism of the horse race coverage
From the point of view of democracy theory, the main criticism is that the journalistic focus on the course of the race in the election campaign leads to a displacement of substantive issues. Since the publication space of a medium is usually limited, there is no longer any room to deal with program proposals and content-related differences between the positions of the parties in individual policy areas. In addition to this substance reduction hypothesis, some critics of the horse race reporting point to the risk that as a result the political knowledge of the general population will decrease and the election campaign will no longer be perceived as a political but as an entertainment offer. For some voters, the emphasis on the competitive character could, in the worst case, lead to increasing disenchantment with politics .
With regard to the frequent use of survey data, their formal and content quality is particularly criticized. Surveys are not presented in sufficient detail in terms of method. For example, reference is made to the statistical margin of error only in the rarest of cases, so that the impression can arise that surveys reflect the real distribution of opinion in the country one-to-one.
literature
- Thomas B. Littlewood: Calling Elections: The history of horse-race journalism . 1999
- Thorsten Faas, Christian Mackenrodt, Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck: Perception and impact of political opinion polls. An exploration for the 2005 Bundestag election . In: Brettschneider / Niedermayer / Weßels (ed.): The Federal Parliament election 2005: Analyzes of the election campaign and the election results 2007 , pp. 233-267
- Frank Brettschneider: The press and the polls in Germany, 1980-1994. Poll coverage as an essential part of election campaign reporting . In: International Journal of Public Opinion Research 9 (3) 1997, pp. 248-265
- Ralf Hohlfeld: Bundestag election campaign 2005 in the main news programs . In: From Politics and Contemporary History 38/2006, pp. 11–17.
- Juliana Raupp: information, instrumentalization, reflection. The inconsistent use of polls in election reporting . In: Holtz-Bacha (Ed.): The mass media in the election campaign. The Federal Parliament election 2002 , 2003, pp. 138–161
Web links
swell
- Faas, Mackenrodt, Schmitt-Beck: Perception and Effect of Political Opinion Polls. An exploration for the 2005 Bundestag election .
- Frank Brettschneider: The press and the polls in Germany, 1980-1994 .
- Ralf Hohlfeld: Bundestag election campaign 2005 in the main news programs .
- Juliana Raupp: information, instrumentalization, reflection. The inconsistent use of polls in election reporting .