in to the public's knowledge the political issues at stake and who is likely to be the next president of the United States of America. (Kalb 1999, p.h2) Coverage of a political event or campaign also plays a significant role in the eye of the public and also to the candidate. "Candidates who do well will receive more attention from the news mediaactive candidates will receive more coverage. The greater the activity by a candidate, the more likely the candidate will receive more coverage." (Haynes 1998,p.420) News coverage and their input to the public's information environmental environment in presidential campaigns are very critical in determining the outcome of the election. Elections are influenced by two factors. The first being the strength and political skills of the incumbent and the second being the interpretation of the incumbent's performance by the mass media, particularly television. A study was taken during the 1996 presidential election race between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. Clinton regained positive news coverage by the major television newscasts by battling with Dole over Medicare and the United States budget. This event was covered live by the media and displayed to the public in an encouraging manner in favor of Bill Clinton which in turn strengthened Clinton's political image in the eye of the voters. Many news stories came about depicting Clinton as the strong incumbent and it proved successful with an easy victory over Dole in the 1996 election. (Dover 1998,p.47) As seen here the mass media coverage does structure voters ' opinions about their political leaders. Many domestic and foreign policy issues are affected by the media in which are brought to the politicians. These domestic issues consist of education, healthcare, poverty, and crime. The foreign policy issues at hand are the Russian relations, terrorism, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Crime and terrorism has a high interest value among humans. "Sensitive to...
