THE CONSTRUCTION OF ELECTORAL MANDATES - MEDIA COVERAGE OF ELECTION RESULTS IN CANADA

How do the news media help construct election mandates! By interpretin g an election victory broadly, the news media can facilitate the imple mentation of a newly elected government's program. Conversely, the med ia can constrain a newly elected government by interpreting the electi on as influenced by factors other than ideology, primarily retrospecti ve evaluations of the outgoing government's performance. Studies of ho w the media interpret election results have offered only speculation o n why the media choose certain narratives while discarding plausible a lternatives. Through a systematic examination of six Canadian election s, this article identifies key variables that explain the media's choi ces. I found that the media tended to confer a mandate when the victor ious party focused on its policy intentions during the campaign and wh en the party was conservative; they tended to confer a ''personal mand ate'' when newly elected leaders were facing their first election. In general, the news media quickly settled on one narrative, did not supp ort this decision using quantitative data such as exit polls, and tend ed to depoliticize the public sphere by framing most results as devoid of ideological content.