JUMPING THE SHARK Mediatization of Canadian party leadership contests, 1975-2012

What is the effect on media coverage of politics when political actors conform to market aspects of media logic by "jumping the shark"-staging dramatic political events to fit the demands of the media-thus reflecting what Strmback characterizes as the fourth phase of mediatization? Our paper answers this question with a large-scale, longitudinal analysis of how The Globe and Mail, Canada's leading national newspaper, covered 13 Canadian party leadership contests held between 1975 and 2012. We analyzed changes in the amount and style of reporting over the course of this 37-year time period, finding that the Globe has provided less coverage of party leadership competitions overall. The diminishing number of stories printed on the subject increasingly feature opinion writing, photos, combative language and the elevation of the individual candidate over the party organization. Our findings support a key element of the mediatization thesis: the shift from political logic to media logic as an organizing principle for political communications.