Framing the Battle for the White House

Abstract

The unprecedented 2000 US Presidential Election provided the context for this study, which investigates patterns of news framing in two leading national newspapers. A comparative content analysis was conducted on all the election articles published in Singapore’s The Straits Times and France’s Le Monde between 7 October and 20 December 2000 (N = 484). Significant differences in dominant frames employed in the two newspapers were found, suggesting a link between journalistic ideology and framing. Although both papers used the horse race frame frequently, the authors observed in tandem with this frame an unexpectedly high use of the issue/policy frame in Le Monde, which casts doubt on the assumption that the horse race frame is emphasized at the expense of issue coverage. The study also found that routine framing procedures were disrupted with the inability of the US to elect its president, and a new event-specific constitutional crisis frame emerged.