Sound Bite News: Television Coverage of Elections, 1968-1988

Abstract

This chapter shows that the average sound bite has declined from 43 to 9 seconds. This change is interpreted as part of a general shift in the style of television news toward a more mediated, journalist-centred form of journalism. The average sound bite in the 1968 report was 60 seconds; in the 1988 report, it was 8.5 seconds. In the 20 years from 1968 to 1988 television became increasingly central to the conduct of presidential campaigns. Formal commentaries, for example, were a regular part of the news; while they are rare long analytic pieces also sometimes appeared as part of election coverage, usually "handicapping" the "horse race" in a particular state. Elections were important in their own right to the change in journalism. The journalists were responding to election campaigns increasingly packaged for television, with a heavy reliance on pacing and visual imagery. Critics have been decrying the predominance in election coverage of the "horse-race" story over issue-oriented reporting.

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