{"id":90438,"date":"2008-02-19T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2008-02-19T05:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2008\/02\/19\/pej-campaign-coverage-index-february-11-17-2008\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:12:26","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:12:26","slug":"pej-campaign-coverage-index-february-11-17-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/02\/19\/pej-campaign-coverage-index-february-11-17-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Narrative Vaults Obama into Frontrunner Slot"},"content":{"rendered":"

After weeks of focusing on the prospect of a deadlocked <\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

race with no end in sight, the media narrative for the Democratic presidential race shifted dramatically last week, anointing a definite frontrunner and an underdog. <\/p>\n\n

In a week in which the Democratic candidates thoroughly dominated campaign coverage, Hillary Clinton barely edged Barack Obama in the competition for exposure. But in the period of Feb. 11-17\u2014which included three resounding Clinton losses in Virginia, Maryland and Washington D.C.\u2014the media raised serious questions about her campaign\u2019s capabilities and her viability. (In some corners of the punditocracy unfriendly to Clinton, her political obit was being prepared.) <\/p>\n\n

Conversely, Obama\u2014who ran his post-Super Tuesday winning streak to eight states with the Feb. 12 \u201cPotomac Primary\u201d and established a delegate lead\u2014rode a wave of positive coverage, depicting him with a real, if not decisive advantage. Obama was a significant or dominant factor in 55.5% of the week\u2019s campaign coverage compared to 57% for Clinton\u2014the highest level of coverage for both since the Campaign Coverage Index began five weeks ago. But when it came to the tone of that coverage, he was a big winner. <\/p>\n\n

Here\u2019s one symbolic illustration of those divergent narratives. The front-page Feb. 11 USA Today story began with the news that Clinton team, after a series of primary and caucus defeats, had replaced campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle. The next day, ABC\u2019s Good Morning America reported that the famed wax museum, Madame Tussauds, had just unveiled a statue of Obama standing in the Oval Office of the White House. (A Clinton statue had been created a year ago. But in politics, timing and momentum are everything.) <\/p>\n\n

While there\u2019s been little drama on the GOP side since Super Tuesday, John McCain, the presumptive nominee, registered at 34% of the coverage last week. An endorsement from Mitt Romney and wins in Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia, did not put a stop to stories questioning McCain\u2019s appeal to conservatives. But he is now so far ahead in the race for delegates that remaining challenger Mike Huckabee faced growing questions about his motives for continuing. At 18%, Huckabee had a substantial week of coverage. But after being lauded as the surprise winner of the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday contests, he was depicted last week someone on an increasingly quixotic quest. <\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n\n

With the Republican outcome a formality, coverage overwhelming went the other way last week, with 60% of the campaign stories mostly about Democrats and only 24% primarily involving the GOP. Romney\u2019s endorsement of McCain helped make the former Massachusetts Governor a significant or dominant newsmaker in 6% of that Republican coverage. <\/p>\n\n

The Campaign Coverage index, which will appear weekly until nominees are selected in each party, is an addition to PEJ\u2019s NCI report, which tracks what stories the media covered in the previous week. The CCI offers a greater level of detail of the campaign coverage. That includes the percentage of stories in which a candidate played a significant role (as a subject of between 25% and 50% of the story) or a main newsmaker role (making up at least 50% of the story). The Index also identifies the key narratives in the reporting and the \u201cLine of the Week,\u201d a statement from a journalist or source that in our researchers\u2019 estimation seems either to capture the story or is particularly colorful. PEJ\u2019s News Coverage Index will not disappear. It will come at the bottom of the CCI.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Even in a crowded news week, the 2008 campaign dominated the news agenda, filling 40% of the newshole from Feb. 11-17, as measured by PEJ\u2019s News Coverage Index. Once again, cable television (at 62%) devoted the most attention to the story, with radio next at 46%. <\/p>\n\n

At the outset of last week, the media focus was on a troubled Clinton candidacy. \u201cIt was a clean sweep this weekend for Barack Obama,\u201d said correspondent Andrea Mitchell on NBC\u2019s Today show, referring to Obama wins in Nebraska, Louisiana, Washington and Maine. \u201cThis while Hillary Clinton changes her campaign manager and hopes to stop Obama\u2019s momentum in big primaries to come in March.\u201d After Obama\u2019s impressive showing on Feb. 12, the story was not simply that he won, but that he did so by making serious inroads into Clinton\u2019s base. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cMemo to Hillary Rodham Clinton: Barack Obama is stealing your faithful,\u201d was the opening paragraph in an AP story posted Feb. 13 on MSNBC.com that credited Obama with doing better among whites, women and the elderly\u2014voters \u201cwho form the core of Clinton’s political base.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

The news didn\u2019t improve for Clinton who also had to deal with speculation about the loss of some of her Superdelegates. In a Feb. 15 report on CBS\u2019s newscast, Katie Couric noted that \u201ca chill went through Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign today,\u201d with news that Georgia Congressman John Lewis might be switching his support from Clinton to Obama. While explaining that Lewis\u2019s intentions weren\u2019t clear, correspondent Dean Reynolds said that the possible erosion of Superdelegates is \u201cat the very least\u2026a worrisome development for Senator Clinton at a time when she\u2019s trying to fight back from a series of damaging defeats.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n\n

If Clinton appeared to be teetering on the edge of disaster, Obama was savoring his press clips last week. An AP story posted on Yahoo.com on Feb. 11 illustrated just how well things were going. \u201cBarack Obama could hardly have had a better weekend,\u201d said the story, referring to his weekend wins ahead of the Potomac Primary. \u201cFor a cherry on top, he won a Grammy award Sunday, beating former president Bill Clinton and others for \u2018best spoken word album,\u2019 for the audio version of his book, \u2018The Audacity of Hope.\u2019\u201d In one of many stories about Obama\u2019s \u201cmomentum\u201d in the campaign, former Clinton advisor James Carville told CNN that unless Clinton wins in Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania, \u201cthen Senator Obama is gonna probably be the nominee. That\u2019s a fact.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

On Feb. 14, CBS\u2019 Early Show aired a piece examining the power of Obama\u2019s appeal with voters. \u201cWith soaring rhetoric, Obama is moving his audiences not just politically, but emotionally,\u201d declared correspondent Tracy Smith. \u201cThe stoic eloquence channels John F. Kennedy.\u201d It was the kind of story that has some Clinton supporters complaining about a pro-Obama press bias. <\/p>\n\n

For McCain, his battle to win over reluctant conservatives continues to be a main thread in a media narrative that has him as the nominee-in-waiting. On the Feb. 12 edition of CNN\u2019s Situation Room, correspondent Dana Bash reported that in a meeting with other GOP Senators, McCain offered the message \u201cthat he hopes his colleagues on the Republican side are behind him. He hopes to unite the party behind him. But he knows he has a lot of work to do.\u2019\u201d But even as McCain faces that nagging issue, he benefited from the increasing perception in the media that the Huckabee campaign is now only a symbolic effort. <\/p>\n\n

In a discussion on CBS\u2019 \u201cEarly Show,\u201d host Harry Smith asked his guest about what he called \u201cthis lingering Huckabee thing.\u201d Whatever Smith\u2019s intent, when a presidential campaign is described as a \u201clingering\u2026thing,\u201d it\u2019s a sure sign the media see it on life support. <\/p>\n\n

And now, in the rest of the week\u2019s news:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n

Next to the campaign, the biggest-story last week was domestic terrorism, (at 6% of the newshole), a subject driven largely by the dispute between the Congress and White House over a new surveillance bill. That was followed by continuing problems with the U.S. economy (6%), and the Northern Illinois University shooting rampage (5%) that left six dead, including the killer. Rounding out the top-five list last week was that rare sports story that makes the front pages. Roger Clemens\u2019 defiant, dramatic and some might say dubious testimony before Congress helped baseball\u2019s steroid scandal fill 5% of the newshole last week. <\/p>\n\n

Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ<\/em> <\/p>\n\n

\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n

Media Exposure by Candidate<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\u00a0<\/td>\n\n

Main Newsmaker <\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Significant Presence <\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Total Percent of Campaign Stories <\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Hillary Clinton (D)
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/td>\n		\n

39.9%<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

17.0% <\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

56.9%<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Barack Obama (D)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/td>\n\n

36.8 <\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

18.7<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

55.5 <\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

John McCain (R)
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/td>\n		\n

21.7 <\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

12.6<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

34.3<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Mike Huckabee (R)
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/td>\n		\n

9.3<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

9.1<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

18.4<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Mitt Romney (R)
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/td>\n		\n

4.4
<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

1.4
<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

5.8<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Bill Clinton <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/td>\n\n

0.5<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

1.1<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

1.6<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Ron Paul (R)
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/td>\n		\n

0.2<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

0.5<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

0.7<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Rudy Giuliani <\/td>\n\n
0 <\/div>\n<\/td>\n
0.2 <\/td>\n0.2 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total Number of Campaign Stories = 429 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n

Top Overall Stories of the Week<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

Rank <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Story <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Percent of Newshole <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

1 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

2008 Campaign <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

40% <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

2 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

U.S. Domestic Terrorism and Efforts to Combat <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

6 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

3 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

U.S. Economy <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

4 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Northern Illinois University Shooting <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

5 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

5 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Baseball Steroids Scandal <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

6 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Hezbollah Leader Imad Mughniyeh killed in Syria <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

7 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Events in Iraq <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

8 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Iraq Homefront <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

1 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

9 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Immigration <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

1 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n

10 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Hurricane Katrina Aftermath <\/p>\n<\/td>\n

1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n\n

Click here<\/a> to see the top ten stories for each media sector. <\/a> <\/p>\n\n

Click here<\/a> to see the methodology for the Campaign Coverage Index. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton dominated coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign last week, but in very different ways. While Obama got a big bounce from primary wins, the Clinton campaign was besieged by bad news. Meanwhile, John McCain inched closer to inevitability. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":"PEJ Campaign Coverage Index February 11 - 17, 2008","sub_title":"PEJ Campaign Coverage Index February 11 - 17, 2008","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[340],"tags":[],"bylines":[],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[],"research-teams":[527],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-90438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-presidents-press","formats-report","research-teams-journalism"],"label":false,"post_parent":0,"word_count":1427,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2008\/02\/19\/pej-campaign-coverage-index-february-11-17-2008\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"report_materials":"","report_pagination":{"current_post":null,"next_post":null,"previous_post":null,"pagination_items":[]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"Media Narrative Vaults Obama into Frontrunner Slot","parent_id":90438},"materialsOrdered":[],"chaptersOrdered":[],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Media Narrative Vaults Obama into Frontrunner Slot","description":"

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