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Replication Data for: Comparative Determinants of Horse-Race Coverage

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title Replication Data for: Comparative Determinants of Horse-Race Coverage
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/82GIUZ
 
Creator Hanretty, Chris
Banducci, Susan
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description We investigate the levels of horse-race coverage in 160 different European print and broadcast outlets in 27 different countries at three different points in time. We match information on outlets’ content to survey-based information on the average levels of interest in politics and education of outlets’ audiences. We formulate hypotheses concerning journalists’ and citizens’ preferences over the ideal level of horse-race coverage, as well as hypotheses concerning the information content of horse-race coverage in different party systems. After controlling for the composition of each outlet’s audience, we find that horse-race coverage is most frequent in polarized party systems with close electoral contests, and in large markets with professional journalists. These findings challenge the traditional view of horse-race journalism as a “low-quality” form of news.
 
Subject Social Sciences
 
Contributor Hanretty, Chris