Once upon a time, James Fallows wrote a mighty Atlantic cover story called "Why Americans Hate the Media". In it, he argued (persuasively) that the American media focuses mainly on the game of politics -- who's winning, candidates' strategies, and superficial analysis -- that really only interests the political and media elites themselves. He might as well have predicted that Americans would begin tuning out en masse and finding alternative outlets that, in turn, would reinforce their existing worldviews.
A few days ago, the Project for Excellence in Journalism released a new report on the coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign showing fairly conclusively that not much has changed since Fallows wrote his piece in 1996:
In all, 63% of the campaign stories focused on political and tactical aspects of the campaign. That is nearly four times the number of stories about the personal backgrounds of the candidates (17%) or the candidates’ ideas and policy proposals (15%). And just 1% of stories examined the candidates’ records or past public performance, the study found.
All of these findings seem to be at sharp variance with what the public says it wants from campaign reporting. A new poll by The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press conducted for this report finds that about eight-in-ten of Americans say they want more coverage of the candidates’ stances on issues, and majorities want more on the record and personal background, and backing of the candidates, more about lesser-known candidates and more about debates.
The methodology is worth a glance, but it encompasses every major print, TV and radio news outlet -- and some minor ones too. Coverage is judged by a team of independent content analysts whose ratings have high intercoder reliability.
So, out of the candidates the media chooses to focus on, who's getting the kid gloves and who's feeling the press assault?
Just five candidates have been the focus of more than half of all the coverage. Hillary Clinton received the most (17% of stories), though she can thank the overwhelming and largely negative attention of conservative talk radio hosts for much of the edge in total volume. Barack Obama was next (14%), with Republicans Giuliani, McCain, and Romney measurably behind (9% and 7% and 5% respectively). As for the rest of the pack, Elizabeth Edwards, a candidate spouse, received more attention than 10 of them, and nearly as much as her husband.
Overall, Democrats also have received more positive coverage than Republicans (35% of stories vs. 26%), while Republicans received more negative coverage than Democrats (35% vs. 26%). For both parties, a plurality of stories, 39%, were neutral or balanced.
Most of that difference in tone, however, can be attributed to the friendly coverage of Obama (47% positive) and the critical coverage of McCain (just 12% positive.)
And now, back to your regularly scheduled campaign commentary!
