Findings from 30 September to 6 October

Liberal Leadership post super delegate weekend Analysis

Blog Coverage:

i) Top Tier as defined by delegate count: (www.liberal.ca/news_e.aspx?id=11936)

Kennedy and Dion saw the largest increase in blog percentage over the last week, increasing by 6%. Dion jumped from 9% to 15% after the super weekend, and Kennedy from 7% to 13%.

However, Ignatieff continues to dominate with blog coverage with a quarter of all posts mentioning his name. Overall his coverage is up by 4%, from 21 to 25%.

Rae remains at the same level of coverage as last week: 19% of all blog posts.

The blogosphere coverage of the candidates roughly mirrors delegate count. Within a variation of 5 percentage points, the candidates received the same percentage of coverage in the blogosphere as they did percentage of delegates chosen during the super-weekend.

ii) Other Candidates:

Apart from Scott Brison and Martha Hall Findlay, all other candidates saw a reduction in their percentage share of blog postings.

The Volpe scandal is clear on the ticker, with a spike in coverage followed by a severe drop-off.

News coverage:

Kennedy and Dion come out of super weekend roughly tied for third place in delegate count, however the media cover Dion four times more than Kennedy. Dion posted 24% as opposed to Kennedy’s 6% share of news coverage (the same percentage Kennedy had a week earlier). Kennedy only received 1% more than Volpe and Dryden and 2% more than Findlay and Brison.

Stephane Dion saw the largest increase in news coverage of all candidates at 11% (from 13% to 24%).

Rae and Ignatieff continue to lead overall; Bob Rae’s percentage of news coverage gained 10% (from 18% to 28%) while Michael Ignatieff had a 7% increase (from 17% to 24%).

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