Findings from 2 September to 8 September

Week Ending September 8, 2006

a) compared to last week for 1) news and 2) blogs (who is up or down)

Analysis
Here is the research on the Liberal Leadership hopefuls. The graphs (attached) show the percentage of coverage each candidate received both for the news and in the blogosphere. Research was conducted at the Infoscape Research lab at Ryerson University. Raw data comes from google news and google blog search.

There are some interesting comparative findings for the week ending September 8. This week the candidates who received more than 10 percent of all coverage, and for the purposes of this analysis were classified in the “top tier” (Ignatieff, Rae, Dion, and Dryden).

Of note, the top tier candidates received roughly the same amount of coverage in terms of news and the blogosphere (the difference between the two types of coverage for each candidate ranges by as little as 2 to 4 percent). In contrast, last week both Brison and Dryden received a fair amount of news coverage but significantly less coverage in the blogosphere.

This week there was significant movement in the top tier listings. Kennedy who had been in the top tier of both news and blogosphere coverage last week dropped out, as his coverage was cut in half. Also, Brison dropped out of the top tier in terms of news and blogosphere coverage. This week, Rae and Dion moved into the top tier in terms of both the news and the blogosphere, with both nearly doubling their coverage. Also of interest, Dryden increased his coverage in the blogosphere more than threefold, jumping from 4 to 15 percent. Dryden’s percentage of news coverage increased slightly, from 13 to 17 percent. Ignatieff’s percentage of blogosphere coverage dropped from 49 percent last week to 29 percent this week. Ignatieff’s percentage of news coverage remained relatively constant.

There were no significant changes for Findlay, Fry, Bennett, and Volpe. Each received less than 5 percent of news and blogosphere coverage.

Week Ending September 8, 2006

Top Tier News:
(Top Tier is defined as receiving over 10 percent coverage for the week of analysis)

• Michael Ignatieff – 26% - Ignatieff roughly the same as previous week, 2% less
• Bob Rae – 20% - Doubled his coverage, from 9% last week to 20% this week
• Stephane Dion - 17% - Dion almost doubled his coverage, from 9 to 17%
• Ken Dryden –17% - slightly increased coverage from 13 to 17%

Other Noteworthy News Changes:

• Kennedy received a 50% reduction in his coverage, from 18 to 9%.
• Scott Brison’s coverage was cut in half, from 14 to 7%.
• Fry and Findlay both saw their coverage drop from 3 to 1% each.
• Volpe and Bennett saw no significant changes, both receiving 1% of coverage for the end of the week.

Top Tier Blogosphere:
(Top Tier is defined as receiving over 10 percent coverage for the week of analysis)

• Michael Ignatieff – 29% - Ignatieff fell from receiving almost half of the coverage last week (49%), to a third of the coverage (29% ) this week
• Bob Rae – 16% - Rae increased from 9% to 16%
• Stephane Dion – 15% - Dion almost doubled his coverage, from 8 to 15%.
• Ken Dryden – 15% - Dryden increased his coverage more than threefold, from 4 to 15%. The largest percentage increase of all candidates.

Other Noteworthy Blogosphere Changes:

• Kennedy saw his coverage cut in half, from 16 to 8%.

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www.infoscaplab.ca [1])" title="Coverage of Liberal Leadership Candidates in the Blogosphere Week Ending Sept. 8, 2006: Source: Google News/Blogs, Research by Infoscape (www.infoscaplab.ca [1])" class="image image-img_assist_custom" width="640" height="387" />Coverage of Liberal Leadership Candidates in the Blogosphere Week Ending Sept. 8, 2006: Source: Google News/Blogs, Research by Infoscape (www.infoscaplab.ca [1])www.infoscaplab.ca [1])" title="Liberal Leadership Weekly Blog Coverage for Week Ending September 8: Source: Google News/Blogs, Research by Infoscape (www.infoscaplab.ca [1])" class="image image-img_assist_custom" width="634" height="414" />Liberal Leadership Weekly Blog Coverage for Week Ending September 8: Source: Google News/Blogs, Research by Infoscape (www.infoscaplab.ca [1])www.infoscaplab.ca [1])" title="Liberal Leadership Weekly News Coverage for Week Ending September 8: Source: Google News/Blogs, Research by Infoscape (www.infoscaplab.ca [1])" class="image image-img_assist_custom" width="607" height="407" />Liberal Leadership Weekly News Coverage for Week Ending September 8: Source: Google News/Blogs, Research by Infoscape (www.infoscaplab.ca [1])