Patterns of press coverage of mayoral campaigns: Comparing Detroit and Los Angeles

Abstract

This study examines newspaper coverage of mayoral elections in Detroit and Los Angeles in 1997 and 2001. The project had three objectives: (1) to see how journalistic tendencies in the coverage of national elections, most notably, a preoccupation with the “horse race” and incumbency, are evident in coverage of local campaigns; (2) to see how patterns of press coverage vary across cities with quite different socio-political environments; and (3) to see how patterns of coverage vary across electoral cycles, where the political circumstances changed markedly in both cities. The 1997 campaigns in both Detroit and Los Angeles featured popular incumbents who easily won reelection. The press coverage in both cities contained a surprisingly large amount of issue-based reporting. The absence of a horse race appeared to open space in the news hole for coverage of policy. By contrast, the 2001 mayoral campaigns in Detroit and Los Angeles were highly competitive open races. Not surprisingly, the horse race was the predominant storyline in press coverage in both cities, and patterns of press coverage of these mayoral elections conformed more closely to patterns typically found in national elections.