The GR Press Fails the public once again: 2010 Election Coverage Study

Today, GRIID has posted a 20-page report that looks at the Grand Rapids Press coverage of the most recent election.

The study covers the period from Labor Day 2010 through the day before the election. (Sept. 7 – November 1) We tracked all the articles that appeared in the print version of the Grand Rapids Press dealing with candidates and ballot issues specific to West Michigan and would be on the ballot for those voting in this part of the state.

As we have done with numerous other news studies around election coverage we ask the question that if the Grand Rapids Press was the only source that voters relied on, could they make an informed vote? Our conclusion is that for most candidates and ballot proposals the answer would be no. The only issue that the Press did a good job on during the 56-day study period was the statewide ballot proposal to hold another Constitutional Convention. Other than Proposal One, most of the stories were based on polling, attack ads, and horserace coverage, all of which most often did not provide voters with even basic issues on where candidates stood on key issues.

Here is a summary of our findings:

• There were a total of 87 Election articles during the 56-day study period.
• The races that received the most article were: 3^rd Congressional (21), Governor’s race (19) and Proposal to have a Constitutional Convention (9)
• Area State races received limited coverage: 29^th District Senate race (4 articles), 75^th District House race (3) and no articles about the 28^th and 30^th Senate races or the 72^nd, 73^rd, 76^th, 77^th or 86^th District House races.
• There was only 1 article about Proposal 2, 1 article about the Michigan Supreme Court candidates, 1 article about Secretary of State candidates and 1 article about the Attorney General candidates.
• Most of the stories about candidates focused on polling, political ads, debate schedules, public appearances, endorsements and personal attacks.
• Consequently, most of the stories had very little information on candidate platforms, issues or voting records for those running as incumbents or a higher office.
• Comparatively, there were 153 articles about ArtPrize during the same 56-day study period and 87 election articles.
• Election stories appeared on the front page of the Press 18 times during the study period, whereas ArtPrize stories were on the front page 35 times.

The entire report can be found on the GRIID site in the Reports section.