When the President Comes to Town

Examining Local Newspaper Coverage of Domestic Presidential Travel

Bibliographic Data

ID6180252
AuthorsAndrew W Barrett, Jeffrey S Peake (0000-0003-4858-6904)
Year2007
Volume35
Issue1
Pages3-31
Publication date2007-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Politics Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1532-673X • E-ISSN: 1552-3373
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1532673x06292816
OpenAlexW2118568354
LanguageEN
Citations received20
References cited33

Domestic travel has become a common practice for modern presidents. Many claim local media cover these presidential trips more extensively and positively than the national media, yet no one has examined the validity of this assumption. We begin this examination with a study of local and national newspaper coverage of President George W. Bush’s 2001 domestic travel. Our findings confirm that the local press covers presidential domestic trips both more comprehensively and favorably than the national press. We also analyze variations in local newspaper coverage of presidential visits, finding that the most important factor influencing both the amount and tone of such coverage is the level of presidential support within a community. Other factors discovered to affect either the amount or tone of local coverage include the availability of adversarial sources, whether a newspaper has a Democratic editorial bent, and whether a visit occurred after the 9/11 terrorist attacks

Advertising · Business · Democracy · Newspaper · Political science · Politics · Presidential campaign · Presidential system · Terrorism · TRIPS architecture · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Engineering · Media Influence and Politics · Media Studies and Communication · Law

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