With Election Day closing in, the 2008 presidential campaign was front and center in the news, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism coverage chart for the week to 10/13/08-10/19/08. The financial meltdown was still in second place, but it lost the overall battle to the campaign, 51% to 23%.
The two stories still ran neck and neck on the individual charts for newspaper and online, but their combined 84% command of the overall newshole once again left most other stories scrapping for attention.
Notably off the overall chart was the entire foreign arena – no Iraq, no Afghanistan, no Russia, no anything (although some such topics appeared with small numbers on individual media charts).
We wait with keen interest to see what a coverage chart will look like in December.
| Story | Overall | Newspaper | Online | Net.TV | CATV | Radio |
| 2008 campaign | 51% | 32% | 35% | 55% | 80% | 54% |
| Financial crisis | 23% | 31% | 32% | 22% | 12% | 12% |
| SoCal wildfires | 3% | x | 6% | 4% | 1% | 5% |
| US economy | 2% | 3% | 3% | 1% | x | 3% |
| Baseball playoffs | 1% | 2% | 2% | <1% | x | 1% |
| Domestic terrorism | 1% | x | x | x | x | x |
| Health care debate | 1% | 2% | x | 1% | x | x |
| Gas/oil prices | 1% | 1% | x | 1% | 1% | 1% |
| Tim Mahoney scandal | 1% | x | x | x | 1% | 3% |
| Immigration | 1% | 1% | x | <1% | 1% | 1% |
| China | x | 2% | x | x | x | x |
| Holiday season | x | 1% | x | x | x | 1% |
| Congressional corruption | x | 1% | 1% | x | x | 1% |
| Missing FL girl | x | x | 2% | x | x | x |
| Zimbabwe elections | x | x | 2% | x | x | x |
| Afghanistan | x | x | 1% | x | 1% | x |
| Nobel prizes | x | x | 1% | x | x | x |
| Events in Iraq | x | x | x | 1% | x | x |
| 2008 congressional campaigns | x | x | x | 1% | 1% | x |
| Missing persons | x | x | x | x | 1% | x |
| Iraq policy debate | x | x | x | x | <1% | x |
| Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism | ||||||
