DJ Insight program finds McCain leading Obama and Clinton in favorable media coverage since March 2

[BurtWorm]

I can't say if their methodology is sound; it's entirely automated. It should also be noted that all three candidates receive, by far, more negative press than positive, according to the program's "criteria." But it will be interesting to follow these data over the course of the election.


http://dowjonesinsight.blogspot.com/2008/03/language-describing-candidates-moves.html




Language Describing Candidates Moves Negative then More Positive

The mainstream media's coverage of the U.S. presidential campaign has inched toward negativity during the past 2 1/2 weeks then swung back toward more positive language after mini-Tuesday.

This 2 1/2-week period started the week before Clinton appeared on Saturday Night Live, spoofing the media's lack of gumption in investigating Obama.

This mini analysis was arrived at by consulting the automated favorability analysis in Dow Jones Insight. The system considered 65,374 press documents and found 26,435 of them to contain either favorable or unfavorable language dominating in reference to a candidate.

Comparitively, across all coverage that was not neutral, we found:

* Week 1: Feb 17. to Feb. 23, Obama's coverage was 24% to Clinton's 22% and McCain's 21%.

* Week 2: Feb. 24 to Mar. 1, the one after SNL and before mini-Tuesday, coverage was overall more unfavorable, with Obama's positive coverage at 16%, Clinton's at 14% and McCain's at 13%.

* Then this (partial) week, Mar. 2 to Mar. 6, including the coverage of the days right before the Ohio-Texas primaries and the immediate aftermath, we see more favorable language emerging. Clinton and Obama were evenly getting 21% favorable language with McCain and his nomination-clinching week moving past them to 24%.