Romney Surges to Within One Point of McCain in Florida Media Impressions

Posted by Tony Priore at 1:02 pm on Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2008

Nothing grabs the media’s attention like a good rivalry, just look at how the Clinton-Obama contest has helped the Democrats’ press coverage skyrocket past the GOP’s over the past few months. Over the past week, Romney has moved from third place to within one percentage point of John McCain in Florida media impressions. Strong poll numbers and a recent attack from John McCain have set a new rivalry in place and both candidates are benefiting.

Florida Media Impressions For GOP Candidates
Past 14 Days of Media Coverage

MIQ_Florida_IMG1

The perception of a tight race in Florida between McCain and Romney should help engage GOP primary voters. McCain’s strong national lead in traditional and social media impressions, on the other hand, indicates the strength McCain has heading into Super Tuesday on February 5th. If Romney wins in Florida, it could help to curb McCain’s media lead, while a McCain win could further increase the lead he already has.

Traditional and Social Media Impressions For GOP Candidates
Past 7 Days of Media Coverage

MIQ_Florida_IMG2

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama continue to run a competitive race with 39 percent and 38 percent of all presidential election media impressions in Florida, respectively. While there are no delegates being awarded to the winner of the Democrat primary in Florida, Clinton has said she will campaign for a symbolic victory.

In a race where perception and reputation are everything, a symbolic win for Clinton could strengthen her position going into Super Tuesday.

Political candidates, companies and organizations all need to manage their reputations in the media. Perception can change quickly and without warning. Using traditional and social media analysis to understand your competitive position across regions and over time can give you the insight you need to know where and when your resources will have the greatest impact.

For more information on this topic, please see our related press release.

European Media Favors Democrats More Than Does U.S. Media

Posted by Tony Priore at 5:20 pm on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008

We’ve all heard arguments about whether or not there’s a liberal bias in the U.S. media. Politics aside, I think the one truth most of us could agree on is that there’s a media bias toward stories that generate readers (and stories that are easy to file, which is where good PR comes in). At Biz360, we wanted to know how European media coverage of U.S. presidential candidates compares to U.S. coverage and discovered that not only do Democrats get more coverage at home, but the top Democrats appear in 10 percent more of total candidate coverage in Europe.

The following charts show European and U.S. media coverage, respectively, for U.S. presidential candidates and hopefuls over the past 30 days.

European Coverage of U.S. Presidential Candidates
30 Days of Media Coverage

IMG1_Europe

United States Coverage of U.S. Presidential Candidates
30 Days of Media Coverage

IMG2_United States

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama dominate both U.S. and European coverage, but it would take further analysis to determine whether a media bias is at work. There’s inherent interest in that contest and that interest has a favorable result for the Democratic Party “greater media share. Recent barbs between Clinton and Obama have only tightened the media’s focus on the Democratic primaries. But unlike the GOP contest, there’s a clear media leader in both regions “Clinton maintains a five-point lead over Obama in Europe compared the two-point lead she currently has in the U.S.

The uncertainty of the next GOP presidential candidate has kept that story going, but with a shifting three-way race, predictions of the final showdown have caused each candidate to take a back seat at one time or another. Note that the top GOP candidate is third overall in both charts, but the gap between third and second is 24 points for European media and only half that for U.S. media. If the contest moves to a clear two-person race, the likely result is greater coverage for both candidates, which may help to close that gap.

Overall, European interest in U.S. presidential candidates is broad and the sixth and seventh place candidates have stronger media representation than you might guess. In a global economy with business and family ties around the world, other countries are following the U.S. closely and opinions abroad can affect decisions at home. Political candidates, corporate leaders and other high profile personalities can use traditional and social media analysis to understand these opinions and how they might impact their reputation.

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