| Abstract: | An examination of the news images of US presidential candidatessuggests that journalists portray candidates in ways consistentwith their position in the race. Strong candidates were generallygiven strong news images and weak candidates were saddled withweak images. Significantly, this pattern held also for the samecandidate if his position in the race changed. In 1988 Bush'snews image went from weak to strong when he surged ahead inthe polls during the general election. Such news images appearto affect voters' images of the candidates: to some degree,voters accept journalists' portrayals of the candidates. |
