Research Description:

Media Coverage in 2006 Florida Gubernatorial Primary Election

Florida continues to be a battleground state: In both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, there were accusations of voting irregularities and there was intense media coverage in Florida. In the 2002 governor’s race, again, there was intense media coverage because Jeb Bush was both the incumbent governor and the brother of the president. This gubernatorial election will be interesting to follow because there is no incumbent. The focus of my research will be the news media coverage of the primary elections for the 2006 Florida gubernatorial election.

Local television news and newspapers will be content analyzed to determine the dominant focus of the election coverage. The data will be analyzed in terms of horserace, issue, and image. Research has found that local news media coverage tends to focus more on the horserace aspects of the campaign rather than the issues at hand. Three of the state’s top media markets—Miami, Orlando, and Jacksonville—will be examined. An analysis on each of the candidate websites will also be done, to see if the issues they focus on are consistent with the media. Possible research questions include: What issues are present and which are dominant? How is the primary coverage different between the Republicans and Democrats? Lastly, how does news coverage differ between the issues in the newspaper vs. television vs. candidate websites?

There is no doubt the Florida 2006 gubernatorial election will be closely watched, and this project will add to the growing body of literature about local news media coverage on gubernatorial primary elections.