Looking Presidential: A Comparison of Newspaper Photographs of Candidates in the United States and Taiwan

News coverage of elections is a popular topic in mass and political communication research. Studies of this tradition usually focus on news articles and neglect another important element of news content: news photographs. In this study, newspaper photographs of presidential candidates in the United States and Taiwan were compared. Generally, US candidates were more likely to be portrayed as a beloved leader, at leisure, from the side or back, looking determined, as a leader and follower, standing or walking, and with cheering crowds. Candidates in Taiwan were more likely to be depicted in a ‘glad-to-see-you’ pose, with a camera angle looking down, with no expression, as an equal to others in the same photograph, and with inattentive people. How political and cultural differences between these two countries may have contributed to such variations was also discussed in this study.