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According to Peverill Squire and Christina Fastnow, "voters tend to learn about office-holders from the media...newspapers are the major source of news about state politics. "

The purpose of this blog is to present my analyses of Star Tribune's news coverage of the governor's race. I will be reading literature on the news coverage of gubernatorial candidates and elections and applying that reading to the articles within the Star Tribune in order to analyze. I will be analyzing the content, location, tone, length, sources, and all other aspects of the articles.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Horserace Coverage

According to Ridout and smith, horserace coverage informs voters "which candidate is gaining ground and which candidate is losing."

With only five weeks left until the election, the Star Tribune figured it was time to do that. An article in Sunday's paper informed readers which candidate is ahead in the race for Minnesota governor.

"DFL candidate Mark Dayton leads GOP rival Tom Emmer among likely voters, with Independence Party candidate gaining ground, a Star Tribune Minnesota Poll has found. In the three-way race, Dayton leads Emmer 39 to 30 percent, nearly unchanged from a July Minnesota Poll. Horner is at 18 percent, up from 13 percent in July."

The article ended with great quotes from three voters with very different views.

"Brad Greenway, 40, said Dayton relates to the concerns of average Minnesotans.

'I think he has a better handle on what regular Minnesotans are going through right now,' said Greenway, who is unemployed and lives in Beltrami County south of Bemidji. 'Emmer seems much more out of touch, especially with the problems we have up here. He and Horner just don't connect.'

But St. Paul real estate agent Don Peterson said emmer is the one looking out for Minnesotans.

'I'm pretty much a Tea Party conservative and we've got to cut both spending and taxes,' said Peterson, 58. 'Emmer's the most business friendly of the three, and I'm looking for the most conservative candidate on the ballot.'

Elizabeth Hustad, 18, a University of Minnesota student who lives in Minneapolis, backs Horner for taking a middle road.

'I'm conservative, but I don't like how far Emmer's going, and he seems a little too concerned with social issues instead of focusing on our economic problems,' she said."

Click to view complete article.

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