Dan LePera- HorseRace Coverage

Horse-Race Coverage in the Media
We have learned all that there is about horse- race coverage in our class. Horse-race coverage is all about who is winning and who is losing. They cover elections like they would a horse race. They talk about who is running strong and who is looking like they might have to pull up before the race is over. They talk about who looks the best and who looks sloppy. Media tends to make it into a one on one battle instead of which one’s plans and policies are better for the people. This is a great illustration of this.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-10-26-campaign-sunday_N.htm

First of all we have the title. It says, “McCain, Obama campaign hard in final stretch.” This is horse race coverage at its finest. They are talking about the stretch run, in a campaign for the presidency. Next the reporter says that McCain believes that unlike poles show he is gaining ground on his opponent, almost like it is a race. Finally the reporter uses such words as leading, underdog, and prevails when describing the political race. There is not much about the plans of the candidates, so how can the public choose the right candidate. This is a negative in horse-race coverage.
There are positives. As weird as this might sound, competition is always better. By competing for something it makes the winner stronger. I am a firm believer that people are more interested in something when there are two or more people competing. People might become more informed by following politics because they are interested in who will win and who will lose. I just think for picking a candidate, this is not the best way. We need people to focus on the person and not the competition, whether that person is winning or losing.
I am not here to say there is no place for horse-race coverage in politics because I believe it definitely has a place in politics. It is human nature for someone to want to know who is winning and who is losing. It is human nature for someone to want to know one candidate’s plan versus the others. I just believe based on what we know about horse-race coverage I feel that the media has to put more effort in telling the public what the individual candidate’s specific plans are, and let them choose who is the right man or woman for the job.

Dan LePera