In Week Of Iraq War Anniversary, Obama's Race Speech Dominated Media Coverage

Last week was a big one for news: On Monday, the markets opened to news that Bear Stearns had collapsed and was being bought out by JP Morgan; on Tuesday, Barack Obama delivered a speech about race in America; on Wednesday it was the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War. A big week, but according to Mark Jurkowitz of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, one clear winner: "It was, to put it simply, the week of 'the speech.'"

According to Jurkowitz, the 37-minute address "dominated" last week's campaign coverage and was the overall newmaker of the week. Obama was a "sinificant or dominant factor in 72% of the campaign stories" with Hillary Clinton at 30% and John McCain at 17%. Since the campaign filled 39% of the newshole, that means stories about Obama constituted approximately 28% of the total newshole. The economy was next at 16%, followed by the Iraq War at 10% (per PEJ, Iraq Policy Debate - 5%; Events in Iraq - 3%; Iraq Homefront - 2%). The China-Tibet protests came in at 5% and the midwest storms at 4%.

The Pastor, The Candidate, And The Speech Lead The News [Journalism.org]