Horse race journalism

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Horse race journalism is a term used to describe instances of political journalism of elections that resemble coverage of horse races because of focus on polling data, public perception instead of candidate policy, and almost exclusive reporting on candidate differences rather than similarities. "For journalists, the horse-race metaphor provides a framework for analysis. A horse is judged not by its absolute speed or skill but in its comparison to the speed of other horses, and especially by its wins and losses."^[1]