The Jeremiad Over Journalism

and self-consciously diverges from its customary role as a conduit of information to tone of
reporting on how it is one of the actors on the political stage.‖ 506
As a consequence, the 1988 election is included included in the analysis as it is argued to present
another ―watershed‖ in election coverage. 507 Implicit in Van Elteren‘s definition of Americanization
is a sense of time lag as the United States is seen as a place of origin for a certain development and
that subsequently is thought to impinge on non-Americans.
Hence, this study will focus on the Danish election campaign which follows directly after the
chosen American campaign. This means that the Danish national election of 1971 will be analyzed
in comparison to the American election of 1968. The closely contested American election of 1980
and the Danish election of 1981 have been chosen to test the expected finding of increased amount
of strategy news and additionally, the American election of 1988 will be studied along with the
Danish election of 1990. The closely contested American election of 2000 is chosen along with the
close Danish election of 2001 and the most recent American election is chosen as it according to
Schudson diverged from previous campaigns in its use of ―new media.‖ 508
In his book ―Framing Europe: Television News and European Integration,‖ De Vreese refers to the
concept of an election ―hot phase,‖ a time period, in which media coverage is especially intense. In
his study, De Vreese suggests the hot phase for the European election in 2004 lasted two weeks. 509
However, in a previous study, which de Vreese builds on, Karen Siune and Pascal Leroy analyze
election campaigns during a three week period, and point out that the last week before the European
elections yield the most intense coverage. 510
Campaigns for national Danish parliamentary elections usually last three weeks, and receive more
coverage than European elections, and since a three week ―hot phase‖ corresponds with the design
506
Ibid. Page 16-17.
507
Katz and Warshel, eds., Election Studies: What's Their Use? Page 236-239. Katz and Warshel argue that election
studies are especially useful in cross-national comparisons, for studying the trends in communication and spur
innovations in political communication, are convenient benchmarks for tracing developments over time, are useful
when examining political communication in new media formats, help test key concepts from political communications
theory and contribute significantly to the debate about citizenship.
508
Michael Schudson, "The New Media in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Campaign: The New York Times Watches Its
Back," Javnost - the public 16, no. 1 (2009). Page 74. Also Adam Nagourney, "The '08 Campaign: Sea Change for
Politics as We Know It," The New York Times, November 4, 2008. Nagourney described the 2008 election as an event
which ―fundamentally upended the way presidential elections are fought in this country.‖ Page 1.
509
Claes H. de Vreese, Framing Europe: Television News and European Integration (Amsterdam: Aksant, 2003). Page
84.
510
Karen Siune and Pascale Leroy, "The Role of Television in European Elections: The Cases of Belgium and Denmark
" European Journal of Communication 9, no. 1 (1994).
165