Liberal Leadership Issues in the News and Blogospheres for Week Ending November 10, 2006

No Issues Dominate Leadership Race with Three Weeks Remaining in Campaign

Afghanistan Drops off the Web as Fighting Diminishes

Executive Summary

As an issue going into the convention, coverage and discussion of Afghanistan has significantly dropped off after being one of the top two issues in the news and blogosphere. Afghanistan topped the list of most discussed topics five times since September 1st, however, in the last two weeks it has dropped to become the sixth most discussed issue.

Overall in the news there was no clear-cut issue that distinguished itself for the week ending November 10th, whereas in the past weeks, education, the environment and Afghanistan topped the issues covered in the news.

With roughly three weeks left in advance of the convention, the economy is by far the most discussed issue in the blogosphere at 22%, compared with only 7% in the news. By comparison, There were three distinct issues covered in the news: “women” at 20%, (13% in blogs), “education” at 18% in the news (12% in blogs), and “environment” at 16% (12% blogs).

There is a distinct gap between the top three issues in the news and all other issues, while in the blogosphere, other than “economy” there is more even coverage; for example "health care” (13%) in the blogs, ”women” at (13%) “environment” at (12%) and “education” at 12%.

There was not a significant change in the patterns from last week, comparatively between news and blog coverage.

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