Coverage of Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich in Time, Newsweek, and U. S. News & World Report During the First 100 Days of the 104th Congress: a Bias Study

Abstract

This thesis uses content analysis to examine the possible bias in coverage of President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich in Time, Newsweek, and U. S. News & World report, from January 1, 1995, to April 14, 1995. The study uses John C. Merrill's method: bias were divided into six types--adjective bias, adverbial bias, attribution bias, outright opinion, contextual bias,and photographic bias The bias were also decided as positive and negative. The result shows that the three magazines' coverage of the two politicians was not totally balanced: Newsweek showed more negative bias toward Speaker Gingrich, while Time and U. S. News & World Report showed more negative bias toward President Clinton in their coverage during the period.