Executive Summary Nov. 9th, 2006

There were significant differences in the coverage of issues in news compared to blogs. The exceptions were the following issues: Afghanistan, agriculture, women and to a lesser extent, environment. Our other main finding is that the blogosphere’s coverage of issues was more diversified than the news. Four issues were covered less than 5% in the news: liberal leadership renewal, child care, climate change, and agriculture. Conversely, in the blogosphere only two issues received less than 5%, namely: liberal leadership renewal and agriculture.

Other significant findings:

• “Education” in the blogosphere was roughly half what it was in the news
• “Economy” was covered 8% more than in blogs
• “National Unity” was covered twice as much in the news as in blogs
• “Child care” was a relatively hot topic in blogs at 9%, as opposed to 1% in the news
• “Health care” was nil in the news, but was covered 8% by blogs
• “Climate change” received twice as much coverage in blogs (6%) compared to the news (3%)
• “Environment” received 17% coverage in the news compared with 12% in the blogs

Campaign Issues in the News and Blogosphere (cumulative since Sept. 1, 06)

Over the course of the campaign to date there have been significant differences in the coverage of issues in the news compared to the blogosphere. The top issues in the news are education (22%) environment (21%) and Afghanistan (16%) compared to the blogosphere where Afghanistan tops the list at (19%), followed by economy (at 18%) and environment (at 15%). The biggest difference in coverage is on the topic of education, with news covering it 22% versus blogs at 12%, followed by the environment which was hot in the news at 21%, as opposed to 15% in the blogosphere. Four issues received substantially more coverage in the blogosphere than in the news: child care received 8% in the blogs versus only 3% in the news, the economy was discussed 18% in blogs versus 13% in the news. Health care was covered 8% in the blogs versus roughly 4% in the news, Afghanistan was covered 19% in the blogs versus 16% in the news. National Unity, Climate change, and agriculture received roughly the same amount of coverage in both the news and blogospheres. In the news only five issues received more than 5% of the coverage: education, environment, Afghanistan, economy and women. Blogs covered seven, the additions being child care and health care.

(note: issues prioritized by at least two candidate websites at the outset of the campaign were included in the study)

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