Dow Jones Insight - 2008 Presidential Election Media Pulse: Obama Lessens the Impact of the 'Wright' Wing as Candidates Focus on Economy and Pennsylvania Primary

NEW YORK, April 3, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- Results from the Dow Jones Insight - 2008 Presidential Election Media Pulse (http://dowjonesinsight.blogspot.com) show that Barack Obama's pivotal race speech on March 18 may have helped mitigate that week's controversy surrounding the remarks of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, shifting attention back to the issues of the economy and the upcoming Pennsylvania primary.

The Dow Jones Insight - 2008 Presidential Election Media Pulse showed that during the past 30 days, Obama's coverage peaked the week of March 17 in print and blogs, with overall volumes showing newspapers topping out at 3,305 mentions.

As continued proof of new media driving mainstream media coverage, the increase in coverage on blogs came days earlier than the increase in newspapers. Blog coverage peaked on March 18 and March 19, comparative to March 19 through March 21 for newspapers, and was far steeper.

On the flip side, Senator McCain, currently ranked third in overall media coverage, is looking for ways to boost his profile for the long road ahead to the White House. The presumed Republican candidate's campaign team plans to step up efforts to keep McCain in the limelight in April with a "Service to America" tour at the beginning of the month followed with specific themes rolled out in the coming weeks. Dow Jones Insight will continue to monitor if more press will be good press for McCain and the GOP.

Fed Proposes Financial Overhaul as Obama Bolsters Talk of the Economy

Dow Jones Insight reports that for the month of March, blog posts tying Barack Obama (1,228 times) to the economy far exceeded Hillary Clinton (772 times), while associations to economic issues were nearly equal in newspapers.

When considering headline mentions only, Obama's lead in blogs was even greater -- 853 to Clinton's 267. This indicates that Obama and his economic plans were the intended focus of more posts and are timely discussions as media attention centers around the Fed's proposed overhaul of the U.S. financial regulatory structure and the resignation of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary.

Democrats Flip-Flop in Pennsylvania Coverage Race

As the Democratic nominee race continues to tighten for the few remaining states, Dow Jones Insight confirms that one candidate can easily lose sway to the other in a short period of time.

For the first half of March, Hillary Clinton was considered to have a strong hold on Pennsylvania given her historical ties to the state. However, with winning the key endorsement of Senator Bob Casey, Obama has edged ahead of Clinton in Pennsylvania press coverage, with 41 percent of all mentions to her 39 percent.

In a race where small margins make all the difference, the Dow Jones Insight - 2008 Presidential Election Media Pulse will continue to track who takes the lead into the Pennsylvania primary on April 22.

The Dow Jones Insight - 2008 Presidential Election Media Pulse tracks four key areas of media coverage related to the election, as reported across traditional and social media sources, including:

    -- Coverage of key issues by party
    -- Issue ownership by party
    -- Coverage of policies by media type
    -- Share of voice analysis -- press coverage by each candidate

The Dow Jones Insight - 2008 Presidential Election Media Pulse provides a high-level view of a competitive media landscape and demonstrates how candidates and issues are covered in the media and how that coverage changes over time. Dow Jones Insight combines proven research methodologies, trusted content and advanced text-mining and visualization tools to deliver strategic qualitative and quantitative media measurement metrics. Organizations use the analysis to nurture their reputation, demonstrate the effectiveness of their communications strategies and achieve business objectives. The platform processes nearly a million articles, Web pages, blogs and message board posts per day.

The charts are available at http://dowjonesinsight.blogspot.com/ and can be reproduced in print and online media.

For further information about the Dow Jones Insight solutions or The Dow Jones Insight - 2008 Presidential Election Media Pulse, please contact Diane Thieke at +1 609 627 2706 or diane.thieke@dowjones.com.

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