The Effects Of Horserace Journalism

“Since media are part of the political class and talk mostly to the political class, the myth of popular polarization took root and grew.” (Fiorina, Abrams, Pope, 2005, p. 167). Recently media has played a huge role in the country’s politic; they share information, report events, and frame opinions.

“This is when journalists focus on candidates' polling positions rather than their policies. This coverage can leave voters uninformed…” (Aljazeera). Horse-racing journalism is a major thing when elections are around the corner, the reason being that journalists have to get the populations attention to be able to get more money, since they will be selling their information to the public. But, the problem with that is the journalists will do anything in their power to sell more to the public, even feeding the public false information. Journalists do the horse-racing journalism by not focusing on the politicians viewpoints but rather gathering gossip about that certain

Journalists play an important part in the democratic process. Traditionally, the roles of the news media are to provide a forum for debate, represent opposing perspectives on the day’s issues and hold public officials accountable while serving their constituents. However, in recent decades, media has given way to biased forms of news— partisan media. In Matthew Levendusky’s “How Partisan Media Polarize America,” he explores if these partisan media influences viewers. The book’s second chapter, “What Do Partisan Media Actually Say?” concludes that partisan media promotes a larger agenda separately to Democrats and Republicans, attack the opposing side while denouncing compromise, and usually side with their candidate of choice during

In “Stop the Polling Insanity,” an op-ed article published in The New York Times, Norman J. Ornstein (Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute) and Alan I. Abramowitz (Professor of Political Science at Emory), argues why there are so many different tracking polls. The biggest reason is because this election has controversial candidates and the more shocking polls gain an intense following. This is a great time for the news; however as a voter, one must be careful of the source chosen.

The media holds an important role in informing and influencing the public about political candidates. This causes the FPTP system to turn into run-off voting, which is a two round voting system where voters elect two forerunners for the constituency and select one to be winner. The “first round” of the election is done within the court of public opinion, the “second round” happens with the official election. This can be seen in the example of the 1997 Winchester by-election: “Gerry Malone the former Conservative MP who had lost his seat in the general election, was criticized as a "poor loser" by the media. The Labour Party obtained their worst ever results in a parliamentary election, in part because they hardly campaigned at all and instead focused their priorities on the by-election in Beckenham held on the same day. It is presumed that most of the Labour supporters decided to vote Liberal Democrat knowing how unlikely they were to win.” (Farrell 1998). The Labour Party voters used their votes tactically because they knew they couldn’t win and were turned off by the Conservative candidates negative image in the press.

Lower voter turnout, particularly among young Canadians, has been a consistent feature of the country’s federal elections. Reports, emanating from different sources, have noted the steady decline in voter numbers over the years. The federal election of 2015 was an exception, though. Dorfmann (2015) noted 70% of registered voters exercised their franchise in the last elections which led to a massive victory for Justin Trudeau. Observers opine that this was the most significant turnout in recent times. Though this is indicative of a reversing trend, yet it is comparable as moving back to square one. 70% voter turnout was recorded during the federal elections of 1993, similar to what happened during the last elections (LeDuc & Pammett, 2003).

In this study, I’m focusing on the correlation of voters’ behaviors about the Liberal party of Canada in the 2015 election. The relationship between Justin Trudeau and the party and what effects to gain more votes, pros and cons, the strengths and the weaknesses among different group of the voters. I did comparisons between the main three Canadian parties (Liberal, Conservative, NDP) and did a research report to help to understand the correlates of their support. This research provides an overview of my study’s finding. I did a statistical analysis about the mean, median, standard deviation, the lower and upper mean, how males and females behave about the party, the income correlations, linear, nonlinear, monotonic and non-monotonic relationship, null and alternative hypothesis and many more.

Canadians, like citizens of numerous countries around the world, take pride in living in a democratic nation. While Canada is unequivocally a democracy, there are certain aspects of the system that call into question its true democratic nature. The first past the post electoral system Canada currently has in place is undemocratic and unjust, as it undermines millions of citizens’ rights to vote. This has influenced a great deal of subsequent apathy and indifference toward politics in the masses, and democracy no longer seems to be a benchmark of Canadian society.

The “roots” of bias in the media date back to the nineteenth century, and criticism about bias partly reflects a controversial idea about what exactly is the media’s role and purpose. Newspapers and television alike are suppose to exist to relay objective, factual information gathered and communicated by journalists and reporters.

Voting on Election Day is a crucial aspect of Canadian democracy and the most visible way for citizens to participate in Canada. As the most visible way for citizens to engage in political participation, it can be measured. Official voter turnout in Canada, is calculated as the number of votes cast divided by the number of registered voters. Historically, electoral participation was the highest in the general election of 1958 at approximately 79%. During the 1960s, voter turnout was relatively high fluctuation between 75% and 79%. (“Estimation,” 2012) Since then Canada has seen an overall decline in voter turnout, now fluctuating between 60% and 65%, only dipping below 60% for the 2008 general election by two points. (Dyck, 2011, p. 148) This

I thought it was a good idea to also discuss the relation between politics and the media. I found this topic to be especially relevant due to the last election our country had. The struggle between the media and authority figures has been a problem that has been prevalent for a long time. The role of media in Canada’s democratic armour was strengthened in 1982 due to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This provided constitutional guarantees for freedom of expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.

Stephen Harper was the first Prime Minister of Canada to come from the Conservative Party, and served the country for nine years. In October 2015, Harper called an early election because he believed it would give the Conservatives the added advantage they needed to win. Harper’s incentive for calling an early election was mainly to procure more funds for his election campaign, which, considering his past wins, made him believe that the same degree of support will be continued into this election as well. This essay will argue how the institutional constraints such as the first-past-the-post electoral system adopted by Canada and facets of the parliamentary system benefitted Harper’s campaign, while the structural constraints such as the financial budget for the election campaign and the demographics of the voters resulted in his loss to the Liberal Party.

To understand what state the modern media system is in, one must firmly understand what bias is. Media bias is present “when a political belief or commercial interest distorts the level of reporting” (“Media Bias” 1). If a political station provides positive or accurate information to only one side, then the station can be considered biased. Another form of bias is known as sensationalism. Sensationalism is the creation of panic or fear by over-reporting or over-inflating individual news stories, often blurring facts or reporting speculation as facts. A modern and familiar example of media

Media is known as the “king maker” for many reasons, such as shaping candidates in audience’s perspective. Television has been a big influence in shaping voters choice and labeling political parties, even though some believe media information can be scant in regards to candidates. Media can be anything from television to social media networks and how many people think that media is a great influence, some also think it can be a problem. “It only takes 140 characters to damage a political campaign” in which Smith is referring to social media as being a problem. (Smith, K. 2011. Pg. 9) At the state and local levels party affiliation remains the most important. “In television age, journalist became the chief influence in the selection of candidates

In sharp contrast to past elections when candidates campaigned in-person, the 2016 election has been significantly mediated through mass media. With such a large influence on voters, the media not only determines which issues and events are salient in voters’ minds, but also how voters evaluate candidates. Moreover, media coverage, depending on its content, can influence whether voters think about candidates in terms of campaign issues or candidate attributes.