Obama Wins, but Clinton Drives the narrative

In the final week of the 2008 Democratic primary campaign, Sen Barack Obama (D-IL) was the top newsmaker. In all he appeared as a dominant or significant factor in 77% of the campaign stories, according to PEJ’s Campaign Coverage Index for June 2-8. That was his highest single-week total for the year. Sen Hillary Clinton (D-NY) trailed him in the battle for exposure, a major figure in 60% of stories. (An analysis of primary-season coverage from Jan. 6 through June 8 reveals that on an average week, Obama registered in 57% of the coverage compared to 50% for Clinton. McCain trailed badly at 27%.) But sometimes numbers don't tell the full story—and last week was a case in point. Despite Obama’s edge in quantity of coverage, Clinton was clearly the driving force in a media narrative that focused largely on three questions. Would she fight on to the convention? Would she unconditionally support Obama? Would she seek the vice-presidential slot? A look at the themes in last week’s coverage helps tell the story. The subjects of Clinton as a possible vice-presidential nominee filled 16% of all last week’s campaign stories studied; the decision to suspend her campaign filled another 9%; and calls for her to withdraw made up another 4%; Thus the themes around “what does Hillary want” alone accounted for 29% of all last week’s campaign coverage studied. The theme of Obama, the first African-American to become a major party nominee for President, emerging as a historic candidate, by contrast, accounted for 7%. Just over 2% of the coverage was devoted to Obama’s search for a vice president other than Clinton, and another 3% to lingering controversies involving the Trinity Church in Chicago.
http://www.journalism.org/node/11439