Leadership Campaign Issue Ticker

National Unity (20%) is the major issue this week in the news, followed by Education (17.7%) and the Environment (15.8%). In the Blogosphere, the Environment (17.7%) has emerged as the major issue, followed by the Economy (15.8%) and National Unity (13.2%). Discrepancies between news and blogs are not as important as last week. Liberal Leadership Renewal has completely disappeared as an issue both in the news and in the Blogosphere.

www.infoscaplab.ca)" title="Comparison of Issue Coverage in News and Blogs (November 23 to November 30 2006): Source: Google News/Blogs, Research by Infoscape (www.infoscaplab.ca)" class="image normal" width="500" height="340" />Comparison of Issue Coverage in News and Blogs (November 23 to November 30 2006): Source: Google News/Blogs, Research by Infoscape (www.infoscaplab.ca)

Environment is the major issue in the news this week with 24% of the coverage. This is the fifth time over the course of the campaign to date that it has been the most significant issue in the news.

By comparison, economy is the major issue in the blogosphere this week with 22% of the coverage. In four of the last five weeks, economy has been the top issue in the blogosphere.

While environment and economy are covered differently in the news and blogospheres, Afghanistan and Education receive similar amounts of coverage in both the news and blogs. Afghanistan received 14% of the coverage in news and 13% of the coverage in blogs. Education accounted for 14% of coverage in news and 17% of coverage in the blogs.

The next tier of issues shows more difference in coverage between the news and blogosphere; women (12%) and national unity (8%) have more coverage in the news this week, while child care (9%) has considerably more coverage in blogs than in news.

Overall, the trend of low but slightly increasing coverage continues in both the news and blogosphere. www.infoscaplab.ca)" title="Comparison of Issue Coverage in News and Blogs (November 17 to November 23, 2006): Source: Google News/Blogs, Research by Infoscape (www.infoscaplab.ca)" class="image preview" width="620" height="426" />Comparison of Issue Coverage in News and Blogs (November 17 to November 23, 2006): Source: Google News/Blogs, Research by Infoscape (www.infoscaplab.ca)

Few Issues Dominate Leadership Race

Executive Summary

Our research shows that over the past two weeks -- as we approach the
leadership convention -- fewer issues are dominating the news and
blogospheres. There are no indications that candidates and/or their
campaigns have successfully promoted or championed specific issues.

For the week November 11- 16, the "environment" topped both coverage (25%)
and discussions on blogs (19%), followed by the "economy", 17% in the news
and 16% on blogs. "Afghanistan" was discussed in 14% on blogs and 8% in the
news.

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.

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.

Analysis of Liberal Leadership Issues discussed in the Blogosphere

Executive Report:

Five specific issues dominated discussion around the liberal leadership race in the blogosphere from September 1, 2006 to October 27. The top issues, with average number of blog posts/week, are: Afghanistan (49), the economy (43), the environment (36), education (29) and women (28). At the start of the campaign Rae's campaign highlighted four of these five issues on their website (education being the exception). By comparison Rae's chief rival Michael Ignatieff prioritized only the economy and Afghanistan on his website. Ignatieff's focus on "climate change" was by comparison discussed 8 times a week on average.