News Content Analysis

Summary of Findings As Barack Obama prepared for a major international trip last week, a controversial magazine cover here at home drew more public attention. Fully four-in-ten Americans heard a lot about a satirical cartoon on the cover of the New Yorker magazine showing Obama and his wife in the Oval Office — the candidate […]

The week began with a controversial magazine cover. By week's end, an anticipation of an overseas Obama trip dominated campaign coverage and brought Iraq back into frame.

Summary of Findings While Barack Obama has been the dominant figure in the presidential campaign, both in press coverage and public visibility, most Americans say they do not know very much about his policy positions. Only 40% say they know a lot or a fair amount about his positions on foreign policy; 59% say they […]

Two men who are non-candidates for president drove the media story lines in the campaign last week. Jesse Jackson’s brutal remarks about Barack Obama may have helped the Democrats. Phil Gramm’s about the recession being largely mental did not help his friend John McCain.

In the 2008 election season, religion has been a significant factor for candidates in both parties. But even with the Jeremiah Wright controversy, evangelical voter angst, and a Mormon candidate, the media largely avoided dealing directly with the explosive issue of faith.

Through the 2008 primary election season, two candidates—Democratic Senator Barack Obama and Republican former governor Mitt Romney—received more media attention about their faith than any of the other candidates combined.

For both, the attention raised concerns about their relig ...

Summary of Findings The public’s top story last week was the rising price of gasoline. Fully 62% of Americans followed news about gas prices very closely, and four-in-ten said it was the story they followed more closely than any other. Gas prices overshadowed the presidential campaign as the public’s most closely followed story by a […]

There wasn’t much good news in the media campaign narrative for either John McCain or Barack Obama last week. The big McCain story was a staff shakeup that exposed internal problems in the campaign. Meanwhile Obama was trying to prove his patriotism, avoid charges of flip-flopping, and minimize the damage from a surrogate controversy.

Summary of Findings News organizations continued to focus a great deal of attention on the presidential campaign last week, but the public was more interested in news about the rising price of oil and the overall economy. As the price of oil reached a new record, a solid majority (57%) followed news about rising oil […]