The Free Media Race

by Chris Bowers, Tue Jan 16, 2007 at 08:29:49 AM EST

Obama announces, Emily's List says it will back Clinton, Dailykos holds its January straw poll, so I thought I would spice up the pot by offering another metric to gauge the early success of the 2008 Democratic field. Here are the number of results on Google News for each of the 2008 Democratic potentials over the last month:I didn't do searches for Kerry or Gore, but feel free to post them in the comments. I am particularly stunned by Biden's ability to get press, inching out Edwards and Clinton. Obama is clearly the media rockstar right now. For the sake of comparison, John McCain comes up with 10,139 results, Mitt Romney has 5,825, and Rudy Giuliani has 3,112.

According to Blog Pulse, during the same time period, here are the results among blogs:For the sake of comparison, John McCain has 4,191, Mitt Romney has 2,243, and Rudy Giuliani has 1,363.

One problem with conducting blogosphere searches on the 2008 candidates is that, unlike establishment media articles, online candidates are frequently referred to only by their last name during the entirety of a given blog post. This might make these numbers more inaccurate. Then again, the lax restrictions for being included in Google News might make searches there more inaccurate as well. Still, the results seem to fairly clearly indicate that Obama is the buzz leader in both categories, with Clinton and Edwards easily in contention, and Biden surprisingly high. On the Republican side, Romney bests Giuliani in both categories, while McCain is even slightly ahead of Obama. Of course, that will change in just a day or two as Obama's announcement spreads.

Tags: Blogosphere, Media, President 2008 (all tags)

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Re: The Free Media Race

I don't think it's too surprising that Biden is getting a lot of press right now. He's chairing hearings on Iraq in the foreign relations committee so the press is bound to be paying attention to him.

by Quinton 2007-01-16 08:36AM | 0 recs
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The google news stats are bogus.

Do a Biden search and see what the articles are about, a lot of it is his high ranking in the Senate.  I've been reading all the Google news feeds for my new site "Where are the candidates?", and most of them are B.S. for all the candidates.  

Also, this analysis doesn't take into account that when AP does a story, it gets covered by about a million papers and jacks up the numbers and they have a bias.  Here are the search results for:

John Edwards from AP:


The 2008 presidential field at-a-glance    Jan 16, 10:54 AM EST
Thursday's College Basketball     Jan 12, 3:15 AM EST
Dodd declares '08 presidential candidacy    Jan 12, 1:20 AM EST
Lists of best-selling books    Jan 11, 2:56 PM EST
Most in Democratic field want troop cuts    Jan 11, 8:17 AM EST
MARQUETTE 73, No. 24 CONNECTICUT 69    Jan 10, 10:12 PM EST
Sharpton considers running for president    Jan 9, 8:02 AM EST
Wal-Mart will defend reputation in ads    Jan 7, 9:38 PM EST
Colts' D steps up in 23-8 win over K.C.    Jan 7, 3:38 AM EST
Chiefs' Johnson held in check by Colts    Jan 6, 9:22 PM EST
McCain's hawkish views up stakes for '08    Jan 6, 3:55 AM EST
Robiskie among 4 coaches Browns let go    Jan 5, 7:02 PM EST
2008 buzz fills the halls of Congress    Jan 5, 7:47 AM EST
Third time around for Belichick, Mangini    Jan 4, 5:24 PM EST
John McCain a target for all sides    Jan 4, 8:12 AM EST
Colts have edge on Chiefs in playoffs    Jan 3, 3:32 AM EST
No. 18 CONNECTICUT 69, SOUTH FLORIDA 50    Jan 2, 9:48 PM EST
Grand Ole Opry star Del Reeves, 74, dies    Jan 2, 5:17 PM EST
Broncos out, Chiefs in as 49ers win    Dec 31, 11:23 PM EST

Now, here are the search results for Barack Obama from AP:


Obama to Launch '08 Bid in Springfield     Jan 16, 2:12 PM EST
The 2008 Presidential Field At-A-Glance     Jan 16, 10:54 AM EST
Democrats Hail Civil Rights Leader King     Jan 16, 8:02 AM EST
Bush Refuses to Waver on Iraq Troop Plan     Jan 15, 8:30 AM EST
Obama, Clinton Making 2008 Moves     Jan 12, 10:22 PM EST
Congress Treats Gates With Kid Gloves     Jan 12, 7:49 AM EST
Dodd Declares '08 Presidential Candidacy     Jan 12, 1:20 AM EST
Climate Bill Sets Stage for Debate     Jan 11, 11:27 PM EST
Lawmakers Grill Rice Over the Iraq War     Jan 11, 8:52 PM EST
Democrats Stumble on Special Projects     Jan 11, 7:32 PM EST
U.S. Iraq Quotes     Jan 11, 3:53 PM EST
Lists of Best-Selling Books     Jan 11, 2:56 PM EST
Most in Democratic Field Want Troop Cuts     Jan 11, 8:17 AM EST
Senators Renew Push for Internet Bill     Jan 9, 6:48 PM EST
Sharpton Considers Running for President     Jan 9, 8:02 AM EST
Senate Torn Over Ethics Panel Measure     Jan 9, 7:59 AM EST
Wal-Mart Will Defend Reputation in Ads     Jan 7, 9:38 PM EST
Biden Says He Can Run With '08 Rivals     Jan 7, 10:35 AM EST
Ex-Dem. Party Boss Blasts Kerry in Book     Jan 5, 1:35 PM EST
2008 Buzz Fills the Halls of Congress     Jan 5, 7:47 AM EST
Congressional Changes Arrive Slowly     Jan 4, 6:04 PM EST
CNN Apologizes for Mistaken Headline     Jan 2, 4:09 PM EST

You can see that many of the Obama stories seem to be general Democratic election stories, and about Obama only peripherally - "Biden says he can run with '08 rivals" for instance.  Whereas the John Edwards stories...well, they seem to be about John McCain and...sports.  Clearly John Edwards is not being mentioned in the AP stories with the same frequency as Barack Obama.  

The result?

The "Obama to Launch '08 Bid in Springfield" story already has 33 hits on Google news, for the same story.

If you were somehow able to take OUT the AP stories, then I would be interested in how the Google News numbers stack up.  

by Robert P 2007-01-16 10:02AM | 0 recs
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Re: The google news stats are bogus.

I apologize for the atrocious grammar.

by Robert P 2007-01-16 10:03AM | 0 recs
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don't need this post

to know Obama has gotten the biggest Media free ride for a politician since McCain..

the metrics here are unnecessary.

by TarHeel 2007-01-16 11:13AM | 0 recs
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Re: don't need this post

That he gets more press is undeniable, especially on the MSM news shows, but by using Google News for stats you run into the "AP" problem.  

by Robert P 2007-01-16 11:30AM | 0 recs
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UPDATE - Please read.

taking AP out of the equation, but using the advanced Google news search, you get the following:

Barack Obama:  5,668
Obama and President: 4,264

John Edwards: 5,385
Edwards and President: 4,155

by Robert P 2007-01-16 05:26PM | 0 recs
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*by using the....

by Robert P 2007-01-16 05:28PM | 0 recs
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Re: The Free Media Race

As far as blog mentions go, Hillary's could be artificially high. Bloggers and commenters tend to mention Hillary because they complain about her, not because they're fond of her.

by clarkent 2007-01-16 08:36AM | 0 recs
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Where's Sharpton?

No mention, no peace.

by david mizner 2007-01-16 08:44AM | 0 recs
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Re: The Free Media Race

Sure, Obama, Clinton, and Edwards are contenders, because they have passionate supporters.  Do you actually know anyone who supports Joe Biden?

by jallen 2007-01-16 08:44AM | 0 recs
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Joe Biden

I am particularly stunned by Biden's ability to get press
What's the surprise?  He's the thinking man's Joe Lieberman, with all the surrealistic self-contradiction that phrase can possibly imply--squared, if not cubed.

by Paul Rosenberg 2007-01-16 08:53AM | 0 recs
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Joe Biden - the Senator from Visa

'Nuff said.

by palamedes 2007-01-16 09:16AM | 0 recs
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Were That That Were His Only Sin!

He put Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court, for one thing.

by Paul Rosenberg 2007-01-16 06:30PM | 0 recs
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Re: The Free Media Race

The corporate media continues to sideline the only true progressive in this race--Mike Gravel.  Shame on them!

;P

by HellofaSandwich 2007-01-16 09:06AM | 0 recs
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This is great and... my wish

Great post, Chris.  I've been trying to make the argument to people that the "grassroots enthusiasm primary" has already begun, and this is a great way of quantifying it (the blog stuff in particular).

Here's my wish -- I'd love to see someone put together a historical month by month (week by week?) trend of both of these.

I'm not sure how to do it, and am too lazy, but if someone did this I suspect it would generate a lot of interest.  

by jhlinko 2007-01-16 09:10AM | 0 recs
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Re: The Free Media Race

Biden shows the impact of the Sunday morning gasbags.

by jayackroyd 2007-01-16 09:19AM | 0 recs
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Biden

I'm not sure the Google News numbers are measuring what you think they're measuring. Though I don't know exactly what method you used to get your Google News articles or when you did it, Google News tends to be biased toward very recent articles and its results vary wildly from day to day; I am not sure, but I suspect that even searching over long periods you're mostly going to get a measurement of how much this person's been in the news over the past 24 hours. (At the least, if you performed this search on or after MLK day, your results will have been skewed against Ms. Clinton by the fact that Obama, Edwards, Biden and Dodd went and gave MLK-related speeches, but Ms. Clinton didn't.) Today I can't get a search for Joe Biden or Joseph Biden to return more than 3500 hits no matter how I perform it.

Second off, Joe Biden is, let's remember, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. He plans to hold hearings on Bush's Iraq "surge" over the next few weeks, beginning with the questioning of Condoleeza Rice last thursday. There is good reason to mention Joe Biden in nearly every article related to anything the Foreign Relations Committee does, and said committee has been in the news a lot over the last week. Many or most mentions of Joseph Biden on Google News will thus be articles not about Joseph Biden, but about the Iraq "surge" and last week's Condoleeza Rice hearing.

In this light, unless you could narrow that search down somehow to articles specifically discussing his presidential aspirations (and this will be hard to do, since even many of the articles discussing his activities as Foreign Relations chairman offhandedly mention he's a candidate) I don't think Biden's high representation in a Google News name-drop check is the least bit surprising.

by Silent sound 2007-01-16 09:47AM | 0 recs
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Re: The Free Media Race

Chris, I've done exactly the same analysis befor for my 2008 sweepstakes at dailykos.com and wat I have found that Hillary Rodham Clinton or Hillary R. Clinton yields many more hits than just Hillary Clinton.

Clark generally gets low results.

Richardson and Biden surprise.

And you should use more sophisticated search terms like

("Hillary Clinton" OR "Hillary Rodham Clinton" OR Hillary R. Clinton") AND ("democrat" OR "primary" OR "president" OR "senator")

to check for all possible names and to make sure that its not a  totally unrelated person with the same name.

I would also strongly advise to use Yahoo news too. Maybe even more reliable!

by MarcTGFG 2007-01-16 12:28PM | 0 recs
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Amazing the change on google news since you did

your count and I just did one!

on John Edwards - I just got 9,420
and Barack Obama - I just got 10,104  

My difference of only 684

I wonder how Edwards closed the gap from what you had in the diary:

Barack Obama: 9,710
John Edwards: 5,944

Your difference of: 3766

by dk2 2007-01-16 01:43PM | 0 recs
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Re: The Free Media Race

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by nachnachoo 2007-06-26 07:58AM | 0 recs

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