On April 19, we wrote a post called “Democratic Voices Enter the Fray” which showed that percentage of statements from democratic newsmakers began to increase in late February when Mitt Romney became the inevitable nominee. The media had decided that the GOP primary was over and began to amplify statements from Obama and other democrats.
Republican Newsmakers Lose VoiceShare to Nonpartisans
Chart shows percentage of statements from Republican, Democratic, and Nonpartisan newsmakers. Time frame is January 10- May 9.
Since that time, democrats have continued to gradually gain more coverage. Starting in late February, percentage of statements from Democrats has risen about 3% every 2 weeks. On the other hand, percentage of statements from Republicans dropped 17% from April 11 to April 25. During that same period, statements from nonpartisan newsmakers increased 13%, rising to 43%, higher than republicans.
Following Santorum’s exit from the race on April 10, Romney became the presumptive nominee to not only the media, but to everyone else as well. Discussion from non-partisan political experts, unaffiliated commentators and academics gained more coverage as the media turned to those newsmakers for insight into general election politics. It is because of this shift of attention toward non-partisan analysts and experts that the republican newsmakers lost VoiceShare percentage, not because Democrats were taking over. It will be interesting to see how long these non-partisan newsmakers dominate the coverage, and whether Obama and democratic newsmakers see an increase in their VoiceShare as the general election approaches.
