How Media Covered the 2008 Election

In general, the 2008 election favored Barack Obama instead of John McCain, leading towards a potential bias. Media gave McCain a more negative view and less popular coverage.

A negative opinion of Obama had risen when they began to question his birth place. The Media suspected he was not born in the U.S. therefore not eligible for presidency. Obama had produced his birth certificate to disprove these claims, after many attempts by Fox and conspiracy theorists of his citizenship to demean his presidency.

A prominent reason why McCain had a very negative public view, was because he constantly paraded his views on the Iraq War. He formed a propaganda campaign strictly on Saddam Hussein's possession of WMD's.

"I have not seen the book or the comments. But i know why i supported [the war] because I believed Saddam Hussein ad weapons of mass destruction as did every intelligence agency in the world and every assessment," McCain claims.

McCain had initial positive remarks from the press until his reaction to the financial market crisis. McCain tried to change public opinion so he had attacked Obama's character in order to increase his own popularity, but this only ended up hurting McCain more.

 Obama's coverage had the opposite effect. He began with a very negative response, but the tone switched after McCain's several screw ups.

McCain encountered many attacks towards his character. There were recorded phone messages that had spread rumors over McCain's wife Cindy, that she was a junkie; she had also been addicted to prescription painkillers once, which had helped support their claim despite their being lack of evidence.

A small group of Vietnam veterans had suggested that McCain became a traitor while he was in Vietnam. McCain responded to these by pulling down his negative advertisements from TV.

Another factor that contributed to Obama's win was his techno-demographic appeal. This caused the youth to show more appeal towards him. The media's coverage greatly contributed to his win, with a 70% vote among Americans under the age of 25.



A study published by ABC News shows that the news/media focused primarily on campaign strategy, polls and fundraising than on the individual policy positions of these two candidates.

Nearly 63% of all stories from the media focused on the political aspects, rather than the 15% concentrated on the candidates and their policies.

"More than three-quarters of the American public said in recent surveys that they want more coverage of the candidates' positions on the issues... and that's exactly what they're not getting from the coverage in the press," said Amy Mitchell, deputy director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

With so many candidates at the start of presidential elections, the news did not have the resources to cover every candidate.

"In these nominating contests with large fields, journalists are in a tough position of figuring out who the front-runners are," said Harvard professor Thomas Patterson, author of "The Vanishing Voter" and "Out of Order."

Journalists had a difficult job to cover such a large event, but the media covered it with triumph.

Interview about Obama's Stand on Crisis'

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-on-economic-crisis-transition/

Work Cited 
http://www.journalism.org/2008/10/22/winning-media-campaign/

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2008/05/29/23990/mccain-mcclellan/

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/42779923/ns/politics-white_house/t/obama-releases-detailed-us-birth-certificate/#.VWXDAmRVhHw
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/11/17/the-fall-7
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2008/11/19/barack-obama-and-the-facebook-election
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/story?id=3789721