Framing the Press and Publicity Process in U.S., British, and German General Election Campaigns

Abstract

This study compares metacoverage—news about the press and publicity processes—in broadcast coverage of the 2000 U.S. presidential election, the 2001 British general election, and the 2002 German general election. The authors observed metacoverage topics separately from press and publicity frames. The authors theorized that the presence of metacoverage topics in campaign news reflects the influence of system-level factors on campaign communication and, furthermore, that the use of press and publicity frames by journalists is influenced by a country’s political communication culture. Press and publicity topics are particularly more frequent in U.S. news than in British news, corroborating systemic differences between the countries. However, press and publicity topics co-occur with, and press and publicity frames contextualize, the same rank order of campaign topics in all three countries, demonstrating convergence among political communication cultures in these three democracies