Media ownership and objectivity

The purpose of this study is to examine whether the different type of ownership will affect the degree of objectivity of newspaper coverage of 2000 presidential election. It is predicted by Shoemaker’s news content theory that publicly-owned newspaper is more objective than privately-owned newspaper. The findings of this study support this theory. A content analysis of 238 news stories and eight editorials from publicly-owned the Boston Globe and privately-owned the Boston Herald showed that not only does the ownership affect the objectivity of the coverage of these two newspapers on 2000 presidential election, the endorsements also affect the degree of objectivity. The study found that there has been some improvement on the newspapers’ coverage of Presidential election since 1988. This study found more evidence to support Shoemaker’s theory of news content and ownership. It also extended the previous study done by Kenney and Simpson(1993) by giving new evidence from a different election, in different newspapers, and by including the owner’s political views