Elections/Campaigns

CCJ conducted a number of studies about the 2000 campaign, from the start of the primary season to the final weeks of the campaign.

The Last Lap
How the press covered the final stages of the campaign.
October 31, 2000
In the closing weeks of the presidential race, coverage was strikingly negative, and Vice President Al Gore got the worst of it. In contrast, George W. Bush was twice as likely as Gore to get coverage that was positive in tone, more issue-oriented and more likely to be directly connected to citizens.

A Question of Character
How the media have handled the issue and how the public has reacted.
July 27, 2000
If elections are a battle for control of message through the media, George W. Bush has had the better of it on the question of character than Albert Gore Jr., according to this study of coverage leading up to the GOP convention. But the public may not be getting—or believing—the message.

ePolitics
A study of the 2000 presidential campaign on the Internet.
April 10, 2000
The first-ever study of online coverage of the presidential election found that many of the most popular online portals do not live up to the promise of the Internet as a gateway to new, unfiltered and diverse information about politics.

In the Public Interest?
A content study of early coverage of the 2000 campaign.
February 3, 2001
The news media offered the American public a fine education in campaign tactics but told them little about matters that actually will affect them as citizens in the weeks leading up to the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary.