Determining press coverage: Canadian federal elections in Quebec newspapers

This paper enquires into the factors that affect the coverage made by local Quebec newspapers of the Canadian federal elections between 2008 and 2015. We use Bardin's (1977) content analysis method in both quantitative and qualitative perspective. Our main insights are that 1) the "horse race" coverage structure is decisive in central-izing media attention on party leaders; 2) belonging to the locality is an essential factor in the visibility of the local media, a filter that only cases of extreme importance or very high hierarchical authority can exceed; 3) the newspapers' political positions interfere percep-tibly in the treatment given to the various actors; 4) factors linked to journalism, such as newsworthiness values and criteria, have a greater influence in the treatment received by other actors who gain some degree of visibility.