Election Beat 2020: Blue wave? Red dawn? What’s the future of the Republican Party?
In the last of his Election Beat 2020 columns, Thomas E. Patterson argues that the Republican Party is in trouble.
Election Beat 2020
In the weeks leading up to the 2020 U.S. election, Thomas E. Patterson wrote this series of research-based pieces examining election-related topics and how journalists cover them. Patterson is Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press at Harvard Kennedy School and author of “Is the Republican Party Destroying Itself?” He also conceived The Journalist’s Resource and oversaw its initial development.
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Election Beat 2020: Not all battleground states are equal
George Orwell famously wrote, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” So it is with America’s voters. The outcome of today’s election is in the hands of those voters lucky enough
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Election Beat 2020: How news outlets become misinformation superspreaders
How could America’s news outlets, which claim to be guardians of the truth, be a prime source of untruth?
The answer lies in journalists’ routines and their need to attract an audience.
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Election Beat 2020: Preventing an election night nightmare
Focusing on the electoral vote on election night will highlight yet-to-be-counted ballots and slow the urge to call the election too soon.
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Election Beat 2020: Polls, polls and more polls — navigating the numbers
As Election Day has drawn closer, opinion polls have taken up ever more of the news hole. Which of the dozens of polls that cross journalists’ desks are reliable, and which should be ignored?
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Election Beat 2020: Will white working-class voters be decisive this time?
How should journalists think about white working-class voters in the closing weeks of the 2020 campaign? Like 2016, their concentration in a few key battleground states makes them a group deserving of special attention.
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Election Beat 2020: The mysterious voter registration deadline
The news media would perform a public service by making Americans aware of voter registration deadlines and what they need to do to participate in elections, writes media scholar Thomas E. Patterson.
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Election Beat 2020: How journalists influence the public’s response to presidential debates
“The first presidential debate is but a week away. The challenge for news outlets will be to try to capture the debate as a whole and not through the lens of its most sensational moment,” writes Thomas E. Patterson.
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Election Beat 2020: The ongoing watchdog obligation to cover the US census
Tom Patterson asks whether the press has an obligation to increase its focus on the U.S. census as the new deadline for the count approaches.
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Election Beat 2020: Where did all the swing voters go?
Today’s presidential nominees need not only convince voters that they’re the better choice but also that their party is an acceptable choice, writes Thomas E. Patterson.
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