This paper aims to examine the polarization in American news coverage as well as discuss, whether this is a democratic problem. The report is based on a hypothesis suggesting that there exists a polarization in the American media landscape, and focuses on the two cable news channels Fox News and MSNBC. The Americans’ TV-news consumption, the importance of news coverage for American voting behavior, and Fox News and MSNBC’s promotion of political issues is examined and analyzed with a view to the following discussion of a possible democratic problem. This paper concludes that Fox News and MSNBC, both direct and indirect, are able to influence voting behavior in the sense that they can reinforce existing views and political attitudes, and influence swing voters. It is concluded that the biased news coverage of the two channels can be seen as a threat to democracy, but not yet a democratic problem. Further development and enhancement of the tendencies examined in this paper can however lead to such a problem.
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