News Content Analysis

While Obama’s primary win gave him the edge in quantity of coverage, Clinton was the driving force in a media narrative that focused largely on what she would do next.

In the last official week of the long and grueling Democratic nomination battle, Barack Obama captured his party’s top prize. But it was Hillary Clinton—by providing most of the week’s suspense and drama—who proved she could still dominate the story line in defeat.

Summary of Findings Over the course of the primary campaign season greater numbers heard about controversies associated with Barack Obama than heard about other campaign events. Nonetheless, far more Americans believe that the press coverage has favored Barack Obama than think it has favored Hillary Clinton. Nearly four-in-ten (37%) say that in covering the Democratic […]

It was another dramatic week for Democrats as the party doled out Florida and Michigan delegates and Obama faced another pastor problem. But as that nominating battle winds down, the bigger news may be the increasingly heated skirmishes over Iraq between Obama and McCain.

Summary of Findings Despite a significant increase in news coverage of John McCain last week, Barack Obama remained by far the most visible candidate in the eyes of the public. Fully half of the public said Obama was the candidate they had heard the most about in the news recently, while only 8% said they […]

The new wrinkle in last week’s campaign coverage was not the Democrats’ results in Oregon and Kentucky or the flap over Hillary Clinton’s Robert Kennedy comment. It was the story of GOP hopeful John McCain finally morphing from bystander on the sidelines to newsmaker in the headlines.

Summary of Findings The American public expressed strong news interest in the earthquake in China last week even as the news media remained heavily focused on the presidential campaign. In spite of modest coverage of both the earthquake in China and the cyclone that hit Burma, the public had a fairly good sense of the […]

Despite a big Hillary Clinton win in the West Virginia primary, John Edwards and George Bush helped make Barack Obama the lead campaign newsmaker last week. And they helped reinforce the idea that the Democratic primary fight was just about over.

Summary of Findings Barack Obama may be building an insurmountable lead in the Democratic primary race, but the public is sending a strong message to journalists and pundits: It is too early to declare, as some already have, that the race is over. Fully 72% of the public – including comparable percentages of Democrats, Republicans […]

After weeks of shifting campaign narratives, the results May 6 in North Carolina and Indiana results convinced many journalists and pundits that the long and grueling Democratic primary fight was finally resolved. From Tim Russert to Time magazine, the news industry last week declared Barack Obama the winner.