N r politik bliver underholdning

The article describes the American presidential election in the two largest American and Danish newspapers: USA Today, New York Times, Jyllands-Posten and Politiken. Two weeks of news about the election have been analysed and showed that around 60 to 70 percent of all stories focused on the political processes contrary to the political substance. At the same time the analysis show that in broad terms the Danish and American newspapers coverage are quite similar. On the basis of theories of democracy the article makes a critique of the media coverage and give possible explanations of, why the focus is more on the political game than on the political substance.