A study examined newsmagazines' visual coverage of the 1988 election to determine if patterns of difference in the visual presentation of candidates existed. A content analysis examined all the visuals (photographs and illustrations) of the presidential and vice-presidential candidates printed in three national weekly newsmagazines--"U.S. News and World Report,""Time," and "Newsweek"--between the Labor Day kickoff and a week after the general election (September 5 to November 21). Every photo containing a candidate's picture was included, and each photo was coded for the candidate, magazine, publication date, size (in picas) and 15 visual attributes. Results indicated that the three newsmagazines displayed no significant differences in how they covered the campaign. Presidential candidates received significantly more coverage than did vice-presidential candidates in all three publications, and Republican candidates were pictured more often than Democrats. The number of pictures differed significantly from one candidate to the other, but the presidential debates had no effect on the number of pictures published by each magazine. George Bush's campaign photos were significantly larger than those of Michael Dukakis. Bush received better page position; he appeared more cheerful in his visuals; and he received better camera angles than did Dukakis. In the vice-presidential campaign, Lloyd Bentsen's visuals were virtually absent from the coverage. (Six tables of data are included.) (KEH)