Horserace Coverage

Horserace coverage is a term used to describe mass media coverage of political campaigns that focuses on the overall political spectacle, the who's ahead/who's behind mentality of a race, instead of providing essential political information. The international trend of mass media coverage relying on horserace elements during an election is prevalent in print, television, and Internet channels. Such coverage predominately focuses on the political campaign as a contest instead of a legitimate, substantive political process. Horserace coverage is considered to be a troubling media practice and a breakdown of the gatekeeping function of journalists, as such coverage takes up valuable space in the limited news hole by focusing on image and game elements instead of the political candidates and their issues.

As such, horserace coverage is exemplified by media stories that explicitly address the projected race results through the presentation of opinion polls, stories that are about various types of strategies being used by the candidates and parties in their campaigns, and discussions of political parties' and candidates' campaign media tactics and advertising. Other examples of horserace coverage include media content that contain a focus on who's winning or who's losing, that discuss in detail where the candidates are campaigning, what voter groups the candidates are targeting, how candidates are raising money, and which candidates are getting endorsed by powerful individuals or groups.

This type of media coverage typically does little to inform and educate voters about domestic or foreign issues or policy issues that might directly affect the voters. Instead, such horserace coverage tends to focus on the candidates and members of political parties as if they were celebrities, sports figures, or game show participants who are in a race or contest instead of a political campaign to hold public office and serve a constituency. Research has consistently shown that horserace or strategy coverage dominates campaign coverage at all levels of elections in the United States. Many other countries have noted the same trend in their political coverage.

Research also indicates horserace coverage is not just limited to mass media. Findings from recent elections suggest that political candidates and parties rely on content that focuses on the game, or horserace, elements of a campaign in their own controlled media, such as Web sites, e-mails, advertising, and direct mail. In addition to this tabloidization of news, the media also direct more attention to argumentative discussions between candidates, such as debates.

Also, metacommunication is considered to be specific type of horserace coverage in which the media tend to inject themselves into news. This trend is particularly alarming in democracies, where the public rely on the mass media to provide substantive and objective information on political and policy issues. Researchers have noted this practice and even measured the amount of time the media spend talking to and about themselves versus actual coverage during presidential campaigns, finding significant decreases in the amounts of substantive coverage of issues, as [Page 311]well as the time given to coverage of statements by political leaders and newsmakers.

Overall, horserace coverage is game- and/or polldriven reporting. This type of content appears to favor the short sound bite and is often followed by an instant analysis from a media personality. The metacommunication trend is illustrated by the media's tendency to focus the emphasis of campaign coverage on itself, as media commentators report and comment on sensationalistic stories instead of ones that focus on policy. Ultimately, it is of concern that extended exposure to political horserace coverage of elections may increase voter apathy and cynicism.

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