Coverage of the presidential campaign by foreign news media shows a preference for Democrat Joe Biden. That's the conclusion of a study by two faculty members at Monmouth College who analyzed articles in Russian, Chinese, and Iranian newspapers.
Robert Hinck, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, says coverage in those countries of both presidential candidates in 2016 was negative. But this year, they're tilting toward Biden.
"So foreign nations are hoping that you'll see kind of a return to normalcy and hinting that a Biden presidency is going to be slightly more favorable to the international order than that experiment with an outsider Trump's presidency from four years ago."
The most negative coverage of President Trump was found in news articles in Iran, probably because of his rejection of the Iran Nuclear deal.
"So you can see Iran criticizing not only Donald Trump's foreign policy, not only giving him negative characterizations, saying that he's de-stabilizing the world and that he is unfit for president, but also really diving into his mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States."
Doctor Hinck says a significant theme in the news coverage of our presidential campaign is instability in the world, probably reflecting the views of the governments in Russia, China, and Iran, all hoping for a return to normalcy.
Joining him in the study was Assistant Professor Robert Utterback at Monmouth College, and Skye Cooley, a professor at Oklahoma State.
Hinck and Cooley wrote a book about their 2016 foreign news media study, "Global Media and Strategic Narratives of Contested Democracy: Chinese, Russian, and Arabic Media Narratives of the US Presidential Election."