{"id":89408,"date":"2011-10-17T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2011-10-17T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2011\/10\/17\/5\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:12:07","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:12:07","slug":"5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2011\/10\/17\/5\/","title":{"rendered":"Sarah Palin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though she never entered the race, Sarah Palin did relatively well with the news media she often criticizes. She generated a good deal of attention, and a good deal of it was positive.<\/p>\n\n

Overall, she was the No. 4 newsmaker among Republicans. And while the majority of that came in May and June, Palin made news whenever she hinted about getting in.<\/p>\n\n

Over those five months, moreover, she enjoyed the second-best tone of coverage of any GOP figure studied in the news media, slightly ahead of Bachmann. <\/p>\n\n

The data also suggest that Palin shared one other characteristic with Bachmann, as well as with Perry, two other candidates associated with the Tea Party movement. She had a far tougher go in the blogosphere than the news media. <\/p>\n\n

Quantity of Palin Coverage<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

[1]<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n

The week of May 23-29, she was the top GOP newsmaker because her bus tour and a report of her buying a $1.7 million home in Arizona triggered speculation about her running. The following week (May 30-June 5) Romney announced his candidacy and appeared as a dominant newsmaker in 43% of the stories about the campaign. But Palin was close behind (37%) thanks to her showing up in New Hampshire on Romney\u2019s big day and also for a mini-controversy she ignited by offering an unusual historical account of Paul Revere\u2019s midnight ride.<\/p>\n\n

As more candidates launched their campaigns and Palin remained on the sidelines, her coverage diminished. But it never disappeared and she seemed able to trigger a new round seemingly whenever she wanted. When she told Fox News\u2019 Sean Hannity, that \u201cI am still considering\u201d a run for president on August 12, she managed to cut through the clutter of Iowa straw poll week and emerged as a dominant newsmaker in 7% of campaign stories. <\/p>\n\n

Two weeks later (August 29-September 4) Palin was a dominant newsmaker in 12% of the campaign stories when word surfaced that she would be speaking in two states with early 2012 electoral tests\u2014Iowa and New Hampshire.\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/p>\n\n

Tone of Palin News Coverage <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

With a few exceptions, the tone of Sarah Palin\u2019s coverage in the news media was upbeat. Overall, 31% of the coverage and commentary about her was positive and 22% was negative while 48% of the discussion was neutral. <\/p>\n\n

In what may seem like a circular narrative, moreover, Palin\u2019s ability to generate attention became a significant source of that positive coverage.
There was, for example, the buzz generated back in May amid news of a new documentary film, \u201cThe Undefeated,\u201d that painted a glowing portrait of Palin. One story about that movie reinforced the idea \u201cthat Palin has transformed herself into an aspiring queen of all media.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n

Another example of Palin-centric media generating positive press coverage occurred in mid-August when she released a video of her visit to the Iowa State Fair. As an August 19 Los Angeles Times story stated, the video not only \u201cis certain to fire up yet another round of will-she-or-won\u2019t-she speculation about a presidential bid,\u201d it also portrayed her in a very positive light with \u201cIowans praising Palin as \u2018down to earth,\u2019 a \u2018normal person\u2019 and \u2018solid.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Her best overall week of coverage in terms of the ratio of positive to negative assessments\u2014September 5-11, at 39% positive and only 9% negative\u2014was driven by her star power among conservative supporters. After her Labor Day appearance before a Tea Party rally in New Hampshire, one of the headlines was \u201cPalin draws double the size crowd as Romney.\u201d That came on the heels of a September 4 story in the Des Moines Register about an Iowa appearance that began: \u201cThousands of people who waited through hours of steady rain cheered wildly and blew air horns when Sarah Palin took the stage Saturday afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Some of the negative coverage, meanwhile, included stories critical of her failure to commit after an extended flirtation with running. An August 25 story in the New York Daily News, for instance, declared that \u201cto those who want to unite behind one strong GOP nominee, she is becoming a distraction, one that hurts the Republican Party\u2019s chances of beating President Obama.\u201d\u00a0 The sentiment was echoed in the Wall Street Journal\u2019s conservative opinion pages, which ran the damning headline \u201cPalin Fatigue\u201d in early September. <\/p>\n\n

For the most part, the treatment of the Palin in the news media was also fairly consistent. Positive coverage about her outweighed negative coverage in 17 of the 23 weeks studied. <\/p>\n\n

The tone of Palin\u2019s media narrative did turn negative, however, in mid-September and remained so for the next three weeks. That was due in part to publicity focused on allegations about her in Joe McGinniss\u2019s controversial book, \u201cThe Rogue,\u201d which came out that month. <\/p>\n\n

At the end of that stretch, she finally declared herself a non-candidate, generating her second-best week of coverage during the five months studied\u201441% positive versus 22% negative. <\/p>\n\n

Quantity and Tone of Palin in Blogs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

As much of a draw as Palin was in the news media, she proved to be an even hotter topic in the blogosphere. According to the analysis using Crimson Hexagon technology, there were almost 138,000 opinions tracked about the former Alaska governor in the blog posts examined between May and October. That made her the most-discussed Republican on blogs. <\/p>\n\n

But much of that discussion was negative. Only 19% of the online conversation about Palin was positive compared with 45% negative and 36% neutral. (Those numbers closely matched Bachmann\u2019s 19% positive, 44% negative, and 37% neutral). <\/p>\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n

Some of the criticism was about her fame. After she appeared on the cover of Newsweek this summer, The Reaction blog chastised Palin and the media for covering her. \u201cShe\u2019s not serious about politics and certainly not serious about a presidential run. But she has to tantalize both her supporters and the media, as well as much of the political establishment, with the prospect of a run in order to keep her name out there, to keep all of us talking about her, to be able to push that egotistical cause as far as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

For Palin\u2019s supporters in the blogosphere, however, any hint of a run was invigorating. An August 31 posting on Marathon Pundit announcing Palin\u2019s appearance at a New Hampshire Tea Party rally quoted the event chairman\u2019s declaration that \u201cshe is an electrifying figure in conservative politics and a hero to the tea party movement.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

\n\n

FOOTNOTE<\/strong>
<\/a>1. Palin was fifth in the percentage of campaign stories in which she was a \u201csignificant\u201d presence, mentioned in a quarter of the story. There she was present in 6% of campaign stories. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though she never entered the race, Sarah Palin did relatively well with the news media she often criticizes. She generated a good deal of attention, and a good deal of it was positive. Overall, she was the No. 4 newsmaker among Republicans. And while the majority of that came in May and June, Palin made 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