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Project for Excellence in Journalism
Trump Pushes the 2012 Race into the News
One thing was clear last week -- the first time that the 2012 presidential race generated significant news coverage -- Donald Trump has emerged as the early winner of the media primary, at least in terms of coverage and ability to drive the news agenda.
For much of this year, the looming presidential race has been simmering only in the background of the news. That is in sharp contrast with 2007, when the race to succeed George W. Bush was already a major story at this point in the year. But now, at least for the moment, things have changed.
For the week of April 18-24, the 2012 presidential race emerged as a big story, more than doubling its previous high-water mark this year. It accounted for 8% of the newshole studied by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, making it the third-biggest story in the news last week. And a closely related story (at 3%) involved attention to Obama himself, with a particular focus on the "birther" movement that questions whether the president was born in the U.S.
Both cases were due in large part to the attention garnered by real estate developer, reality TV star and now possible presidential candidate Trump -- who has embraced the birther issue and become the rising star of the GOP presidential field.
Indeed, Trump was the week's second leading newsmaker behind Obama, registering as a dominant figure in 4% of all the week's stories. That is six times more attention than the next most covered potential GOP contender, Sarah Palin, generated last week.
The week's No. 1 story, at 15%, was the continued unrest and violence in the Middle East, primarily in Libya. Coverage was up from 10% the previous week, fueled by several significant developments in the Libyan war including the deaths of two journalists and a modification of the U.S. military role with the introduction of Predator drone strikes.
Coverage of the economy, 14%, was once again driven by concern about the government's financial health, which included an ominous warning from the ratings agency Standard & Poor's. After two weeks atop the news agenda, economic-related coverage plunged dramatically from the previous week (39%), when Obama rolled out his deficit plan.
A story with a direct impact on the economy, the continued rise of gas prices, was the No. 5 subject (3% of the newshole) as the average cost per gallon at the pump reached $3.85.
April 20 also marked one year since the BP Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and triggered a massive environmental disaster. Last week, coverage of that anniversary was the fourth-biggest story, at 6% of the newshole. And some of the media updates on the situation were not very rosy.