The Coverage of Post-War Election Campaigns: the Otago Daily Times

Abstract

The paper examines the coverage of election campaigns by the Otago Daily Times for the period 1946-2002. Four aspects of campaign coverage are addressed: the degree of partisanship of editorials, and party balance in news stories and their placement; the presidentialisation of coverage; the relative shares of ‘game’ and substance stories; and the extent to which coverage is national rather than local in focus. The paper finds clear evidence of a decline in both partisanship of editorials since the 1970s and balanced party coverage in other news stories across the whole period. There has been an increase in stories devoted to party leaders and the horse-race and hoopla aspects of the campaign. There has also been an increase in nationally focused stories. However, there remains substantial coverage of parties and their policies, and during the 1990s there was evidence of an increase in local and regionally focused stories. Overall, readers of the Otago Daily Times have significant opportunity to become ‘informed’ voters.