Political handicapping

Horse -race coverage from the American horse race journalism (in German about horse - race journalism ), refers to a journalistic reporting form which represents the competition and confrontation character of politics in the foreground. Especially during election campaigns is therefore reported on the political debate in the form of a horse race or game scheme. The vocabulary used by journalists is borrowed from the sports coverage. Examples of this include: Party A and Party B to provide a head-to -head race; Party A front again; Party B by a large margin; etc.

Use of surveys

Characteristic of the Horse -race coverage is the frequent use of survey results. With their help, the campaign can be represented as an exciting course of mood changes and measure the (mis - ) success of campaign activities supposedly directly on a representative population opinion. The advantages of surveys are according to the news value theory in the following news factors: Polls are current, are related to prominent status, people who ask political confrontation in the center and offer potential surprise.

Evidence of an increase in the Horse -race coverage

Empirical evidence of an increase of the Horse -race coverage in western media style democracies in many studies. In the U.S., this reporting form was observed in the 1970s and first discussed within the media and political science. In Germany especially Frank Brettschneider investigate the frequency of survey coverage and Rüdiger Schmitt -Beck their potential effects on the recipients and voters.

This Brettschneider has detected an increase in the survey theming in the German quality press in the period between 1980 and 2002 by ten times. They also state that reported increased about polls in the media when all forecasts for a tight election calls. Then polls appear to have a high information value for the recipient. In the West German electoral system with the five-percent hurdle, there is also a special interest in surveys, it is not clear whether one or more of the small parties can overcome this hurdle.

Criticism of the Horse -race coverage

From a democratic theory perspective is the main criticism that journalistic focus has led to the race course during the election campaign to a displacement of substantive factual issues. Since the publication of a medium space is usually limited, it remains to deal with program proposals and substantive differences between the positions of the parties in certain policy fields no more room. In addition to this substance reduction hypothesis, some critics of the Horse -race coverage to the risk that in the wake decreases the political knowledge of the general population and the campaign is no longer perceived as a political, rather than entertainment. For some voters, the emphasis of the competition character in the worst case could lead to an increasing disenchantment with politics.

Regarding frequent use of survey data in particular their form and content quality is criticized. Polls were not presented in sufficient detail methodically. For example, reference is made only in rare cases to the statistical margin of error, so that the impression could arise polls reflect the real opinion distribution in the country one on one resist.