Nightly News Research Articles

Election Night News Coverage: The Limitations of Story-Telling

Election Night News Coverage: The Limitations of Story-Telling

Election Night News Coverage: The Limitations of Story-Telling

On election night every two years, the three major television networks provide extensive coverage of the election returns. Recently this coverage has engendered considerable controversy because of the timing of election predictions and the use of exit poll data. These questions raise important questions about competing democratic principles. And yet there are other ways in which television's election night coverage is equally controversial for civic education but which have escaped public scrutiny. As social scientists we became interested in what citizens can learn about the electoral process from watching election night coverage. What is the nature and logical structure of explanations which the networks offer of electoral outcomes? To what extent are the presentations informed by social science research which is widely available to the public?

The Mind of the Most Powerful Man in the World

John Chancellor did it again last night. On NBC's “Nightly News” he referred to the presidency of the United States as “the most powerful political office in the world.” The key word there is ”political.” I recall that until a couple of years ago secular commentators routinely referred to the presidency as the most power ful office in the world, period. Until John Paul II came along. If with Hannah Arendt we distinguish power from force, asserting that power is force combined with moral authority, then it seems reasonable to view John Paul II as the most powerful person in the world today. Reagan and, presumably, Brezhnev can unleash more lethal force. But no leader can compare with the pope's power to direct the loyalties of hundreds of millions of people around the globe.