A New U.S. News Paradigm?: Variation in Election Coverage

It has become obvious and even somewhat trite, to say that the world changed for Americans on September 11, 2001. Yet, from the poignant personal tragedies to the changes in “homeland security” and the ensuing military responses, it is clear that citizens of the United States are confronted daily with the implications that a new sensitivity to terrorism has brought. One unmistakable mark of these changes can be seen in the altered television news environment and the increased airtime devoted to terrorism and related topics. Before 9/11, U.S. broadcast media gave very limited coverage to international affairs of any kind. In fact, less than 15 percent of television news coverage in the 1990s was centered on inter-national topics (Hoge, 1997). The news atmosphere relating to terrorism and security threats is far different in the post-9/11 world. News organizations have experienced increased audience ratings from programming that relies on a “problem frame” that covers issues in terms of fear, drama, and threat (Altheide, 1997, 2002; Altheide and Michaelowski, 1999; Dowling, 1986; Martin and Draznin, 1992; Schlagheck, 1988), making terrorism an attractive option for editorial gatekeepers in story-selection decisions (Jablonski and Sullivan, 1996). There have been many factors contributing to increased international news coverage in the past few years, including the proliferation of cable news channels with their 24-hour news cycle and higher expectations of immediate news coverage (Gilboa, 2002, 2003; Jones, 2003).