How polls drive campaign coverage: The Gallup/CNN/USA todaytracking poll andUSA today'scoverage of the 1992 presidential campaign

June Woong Rhee

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Media Studies and Communication Journalism and Media Studies Media Influence and Politics

Abstract

This study examines the way in which USA Today used tracking poll data in its strategy‐oriented coverage of the 1992 presidential campaign. Scrutiny of the methodological features of tracking polls suggests the news media's potential misuses of them. Studies on media polling lead to the general hypothesis that tracking polls serve the mass media as a device for generating news accounts that focus on candidate strategy. Using the ARIMA modeling technique, I conclude that as changes in the margin of difference between Bush and Clinton in the Gallup/CNN/USA Today poll increased, USA Today cited the poll results more frequently. The increase in the number of tracking poll references corresponded to an increase in the number of strategy‐oriented words in USA Today's campaign coverage. I discuss the implications within the context of the 1992 election campaign coverage.

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References

1989The Mass Media and American Politics 1980Mass Media and American Politics, by Doris A. Graber 1993Dirty politics: deception, distraction, and democracy 1980Time-Series Analysis: Regression Techniques.1992Dirty Politics 1973Precision Journalism: A Reporter's Introduction to Social Science Methods 1991Communication and Citizenship: Journalism and the Public Sphere 1980Horse-Race Journalism: Reporting the Polls in the 1976 Presidential Election

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