Political journalism and the one-stop shop: Legacy news organisations' online coverage of the 2016 Australian federal and US presidential elections

Legacy news organisations play a vital democratic role during election campaigns, producing political journalism that gives citizens the knowledge required to make informed voting decisions. However, these organisations face increased competition in the expansive digital news landscape. Their claim to provide authoritative coverage is also challenged by economic, technological and social changes, the impacts of which are keenly felt in Australia and the United States. This article undertakes a comparative case study of the online political journalism of six legacy outlets in Australia and the US. It analyses the online coverage of set-piece events during the 2016 national-level election campaigns in both countries. The article argues that these organisations sought to compete by offering audiences comprehensive political coverage and positioning their journalism as uniquely valuable. In doing so, they constructed their websites as 'one-stop shops' that provided authoritative political journalism and embraced the possibilities of digital news.