Obama Continues to Lead in Total Mentions

By Glenn Fannick
Dow Jones Insight Staff

While McCain received fewer mentions in the context of all four countries discussed above, the totals are actually more competitive than they first appear, given that McCain is still receiving less coverage than Obama overall. In the same week analyzed above (July 14 – July 21), Obama was mentioned 60,654 times in all tracked mainstream and social media sources, for a 59% share, compared to McCain’s 42,463 mentions, or 41% share.

Even after stripping out all mentions pertaining to the issues of faith and race (on which Obama has consistently trounced McCain), Obama still drew 57% of all mentions in the seven days compared with 43% for McCain.

Taking that split into account, Obama still bested McCain on Afghanistan and Israel – as his share on the two issues exceeded his share of all coverage minus the two excluded issues – while McCain improved his performance on Iraq and Iran, as his share on those issues exceeded his share overall.

Methodology: Mainstream press sources include more than 6,000 newspapers, wires, magazines, radio and TV transcripts and more than 13,000 current-awareness news Web sites. Social media sources include 2 million of the most influential blogs and more than 60,000 message boards.

Some Surprises on Global Issues

Dow Jones Insight Staff
Now that the primary battles are coming to an end, the candidates likely will begin to focus more of their attention on the crucial issues that will be faced by the next president rather than the more tangential matters they’ve highlighted recently to cut down their opponents. How have they fared recently on some key global issues?

Over the past month, Obama has largely owned the “terrorism” issue in the tracked mainstream press sources, for better and for worse. (“Owned” in this context means his name occurred in close proximity* to specific terms associated with the issue.) His coverage was driven in part by articles referencing his pastor’s comments, the McCain-fueled controversy over Hamas’s endorsement of him and his comments that he would meet with Iran, Cuba and North Korea if he were elected (which also drove him to be the candidate most closely associated with North Korea). Clinton led the way on Iran with her controversial comments about “obliterating” Iran should it attack Israel. McCain, despite being the most in favor of the war in Iraq, was actually the least associated of the three candidates with the issue of Iraq over the past month.

* “Close proximity” is defined as within about 50 words

Clinton Wins War of Words (by Volume) on Iraq

Pati Carson

Dow Jones Insight Staff

The war in Iraq was a significant factor in this week’s election coverage. McCain, the candidate who most strongly supports the U.S. presence there, was in Baghdad on a congressional visit ahead of the fifth anniversary of the conflict, but still he did not receive the highest number of mentions on this topic. McCain was discussed in connection with Iraq 573 times, but Clinton was mentioned more often (607 times), as she used a speech in Washington Monday to slam both McCain and Obama (423 mentions) on Iraq.