This paper addresses the unclear and puzzling responsibility of both traditional media and political actors for the absence of substantial political issues in the news coverage of political elections. Literature has been noticing the increasing tendency of news media to emphasize aspects such as race and conflict, instead of presenting relevant policy information. I analyze to what extent a media logic is hindering the electoral competitors from producing more informative and less conflict-driven campaigns, by examining the differences in the frames used by journalists in traditional media and the campaign made by political parties on the Social Networking Sites (SNS), where nowadays politicians and parties can bypass journalists and present their messages directly to the electorate. For that I carried out a substantial content analysis of traditional media news coverage and political actors made in the SNS in four first-order elections (US 2012, Italy 2013, Germany 2013 and Brazil 2014).
