Bias during the 2008 Presidential Campaign

Paper Summary:

This paper aims to measure partisan bias in the New York Times relating to the 2008 presidential campaign through content analysis of articles concerning the presidential and vice-presidential candidates from the two major parties. It also details the writer's reviews of his own influences, the research methods he used, analysis that was done and the results that he came to.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Literature Reviews
Methodology
Results
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"These conclusions are not what I expected to come to at the beginning of my work. I had anticipated finding that the New York Times would have significant liberal leanings. That always seems to be the popular theory. For the study, I needed to overcome my own personal biases. In addition to being a staunch liberal, I had held the belief that there is no such thing as a neutral news source, and that every media outlets was slanted in one direction or the other. While the research gave me reason to reconsider the New York Times having a heavy-handed liberal bias and all news sources being biased, it added new views of anti-authority bias to my outlook."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Puglisi, Riccardo. 2004. "Being the New York Times: the Political Behaviour of a Newspaper."
• Kahn, Kim Fridkin and Patrick J. Kenney. 2002. "The Slant of the News: How Editorial Endorsements Influence Campaign Coverage and Citizens'Views of Candidates. American Political Science Review, vol. 96, #2, pp. 381-394.
• Druckman, James and Michael Parkin. 2005. "The Impact of Media Bias: How Editorial Slant Affects Viewers." Journal of Politics, vol. 67, #4, pp. 1030-1049.
• Groseclose, Tim and Jeffrey Milyo. 2005. "A Measure of Media Bias." Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 70, #4, pp. 1191-1237.
• Schiffer, Adam. 2006. "Assessing Partisan Bias in Political News: The Case(s) of Local Senate Election Coverage." Political Communication, vol. 23, pp. 23-39.

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