President-elect Barack Obama (D-IL) received more media coverage than Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) during the U.S. presidential campaign, however the tone of coverage for both candidates was remarkably similar – according to data compiled by the LexisNexis Analytics 2008 election dashboard. Additionally, dashboard data suggest a correlation between major events in the campaign and the economy with changes in volume of coverage for the candidates.

According to dashboard data, between July 8 and November 3, Obama was the subject of 103,275 U.S. news stories compared to 89,601 stories that focused on McCain during the same period. Further, data showed that 36 percent of the stories focused on Obama were positive, 34 percent were neutral and 30 percent were negative. Of stories focused on McCain, 33 percent were positive, 34 percent were neutral and 33 percent were negative.

Additionally, coverage of the vice presidential candidates was dominated by coverage of Gov. Palin (R-AK).

She received nearly four times more media coverage than her counterpart, Senator Joe Biden (D-DE). Further, of the 27,224 articles focused on Palin, 23 percent were positive, 54 percent were neutral and 23 percent were negative. Of the 7,039 articles focused on Biden, 20 percent were positive, 62 percent were neutral and 18 percent were negative.

Turning points in the campaign and the U.S. economy correlated with media coverage trends, as detected by the LexisNexis election dashboard. For example:

• Convention Coverage and Gov. Sarah Palin Pick. Obama enjoyed a clear lead over McCain in the volume of news coverage received each week of the campaign leading up to the Republican National Convention on September 1. During the Republican convention – and for more than three weeks following the selection of Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK) as his vice presidential running mate – media coverage of McCain surged and surpassed coverage of Obama for the first time during the campaign, while the coverage sentiment for both candidates remained about even. Obama reestablished his coverage lead in the week ending October 6 and continued to receive a higher volume and more positive coverage than his Republican opponent through the end of the campaign.
• Financial Crisis. Coverage sentiment for both candidates fluctuated from week to week between early July and mid September, with neither candidate enjoying a decided edge in the tone of coverage. As the financial crisis deepened in mid to late September, however, Obama began receiving more positive coverage than his opponent, although McCain received more total media coverage during this period. For the period between September 16 and September 29, McCain was the focus of 14,033 articles compared to 12,892 articles for Obama. Of the articles that focused on McCain during this period, 31 percent were positive, 35 percent were neutral and 34 percent were negative. Of the articles focused on Obama, 34 percent were positive, 35 percent were neutral and 31 percent were negative.
• Presidential Debates and Lead Up to Election Day. While both presidential candidates received increased news coverage immediately following the presidential debates, Obama extended his lead in positive coverage received during the second and third weeks of October following the last two debates. In the period leading up to Election Day, Obama continued to receive increased and more positive news coverage than McCain. During the final week of the campaign, Obama received 41 percent more news coverage than McCain.

The LexisNexis Media Coverage Sentiment Index is part of the LexisNexis Analytics 2008 election dashboard and relies on sophisticated analytics that have been used by LexisNexis in business applications since 1995. The system detects patterns within the text of news articles and, based on those patterns, applies a scientific algorithm to assign a positive, neutral or negative sentiment to each article. The media sample for the index was created from a collection of more than 2,700 media outlets that includes virtually all major newspapers, magazines, Web sites, television and radio networks in the United States.