The Exceptional Election: Press Coverage of Clinton and Trump in Italy, Sweden and UK

The US presidential election campaign 2016 was in many ways remarkable. For the first time ever, there was a female candidate representing one of the main political parties. Furthermore, the female candidate was challenged by a competitor without any previous political experience. Finally, the two candidates were the oldest candidate duo in a presidential race ever.Presidential campaigns in the US have considerable importance in an international perspective. As the only remaining super power in the world the US plays a decisive role in world politics and international economy and still has an outstanding military capacity. Consequently, US elections of head of state may have great implications for the global community and it is plausible to believe that that the outcome of US presidential elections attracts worldwide interest, and in some cases may be covered almost as extensively as are national elections.This study compares press coverage of US presidential election campaign in 2016 in three different European countries: Italy, Sweden and the UK. The countries were selected as they represent three different models of media systems (Hallin & Mancini 2004). Italy reflects the polarized pluralist media system, Sweden represents the democratic corporativist media system and the UK is an example of the liberal media system. In the Swedish and British media models the mass press is a more distinctive feature than in the Italian media model. Additionally, professionalism in journalism is assumed to be more articulated in Sweden and the UK, while the Italian press generally is expected to be associated with a higher degree of political parallelism and partisan political journalism.Using the three models of media systems as an analytical point of departure, this study intends to compare how British, Italian and Swedish press covered the US presidential election campaign in 2016. The differences between the countries with regard to mass media structures, political linkages and journalistic norms may result in diverging patterns in media coverage of the US elections.The comparative study analysed three stages of the US presidential election campaign: the convention period in July, the three televised candidate debates in September-October and in two final weeks of the campaign in October-November. Four daily newspapers were selected in each country: two elite morning papers (one liberal and one conservative), the most popular tabloid newspaper and one regional newspaper. All articles, longer than three paragraphs covering the campaign and mentioning at least one of the presidential candidates were included in the analysis. Methodologically, a quantitative content analysis was conducted using a common code book and code instructions. In total, 933 articles were analysed: 309 in Italian press, 289 in Swedish press and 335 in British press.