By: Joe Strupp News outlets devoted more coverage to the presidential campaign in the last week than at any time since early March, with more of them focusing on efforts to have Hillary Clinton drop out, according to a study released today from the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
"In a campaign with more twists than a Twilight Zone episode, the media all but officially pronounced Obama the Democratic nominee last week after he emerged with a big win in North Carolina and a near-tie in Indiana," the study stated. "There are only a handful of Democratic primary contests left. And the consensus was that Hillary Clinton needed a stronger showing on May 6 to change the increasingly insurmountable-looking pledged delegate math and/or the superdelegates who have been steadily migrating to Obama."
In its weekly campaign coverage index, PEJ determined that coverage of the presidential race accounted for 46% of the overall newshole last week, when the Indiana and North Carolina primaries were held. That marked the highest percentage since the Ohio and Texas primaries of early March.
Stories related to whether Clinton should drop out led the campaign coverage, with 9% of all campaign stories last week related to that issue. Others included stories about superdelegate deliberations (7%), divided Democrats (4%), and questions about the Michigan and Florida delegations (2%).
"Ironically, in the week that calls for her to drop out grew louder, Clinton generated her highest level of coverage this year," the study added. The New York senator "was a significant or dominant factor in 70% of the campaign stories from May 5-11. Obama was a close second, at 67%. But at only 12%, Republican John McCain ended up with his lowest level of coverage in 2008."
The survey also indicated that more focus was being given to Obama's battle with John McCain in the fall: "Even though McCain has been virtually relegated to the role of bystander as the Democrats battled on, that may soon change. Late last week, coverage began to focus on Obama?s pivot away from his race with Clinton toward a campaign against the presumptive GOP nominee."
PEJ cited a May 11 story in The New York Times that stated: ?Senators John McCain and Barack Obama are already drawing up strategies for taking each other on in the general election, focusing on the same groups ? including independent voters and Latinos ? and about a dozen states where they think the contest is likely to be decided this fall, campaign aides said.?
The campaign coverage index reviews reporting from 49 media outlets, including 12 newspapers ranging from the likes of The Washington Post to the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press.
Other findings in the study:
? "Cable news (at 75%) allotted the most airtime to the presidential race, with radio a distant second at 56%. While election coverage was the top story in four media sectors, it was the second-largest story online (29%) following the Myanmar cyclone (31%)."
? "Myanmar was one of the biggest non-campaign stories of the year so far. Only the Eliot Spitzer scandal (23% of the newshole), the Pope?s visit to the U.S. (16%) and two weeks of economic news (19% and 16%) attracted more attention than the Myanmar natural disaster when it came to coverage of something other than the 2008 election."
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here