Candidate Coverage and Candidate Visibility Press Coverage
In terms of press coverage, Barack Obama, who was on vacation last week, still generated more campaign news coverage than John McCain (63% vs. 50%, according to the Campaign Coverage Index from Pew’s Project for Excellence in Journalism). That said, last week was among the closest weeks between Obama and McCain in terms of campaign coverage since the general election began in earnest during early June.
In addition to narrowing the gap in coverage, John McCain also increased his public visibility last week relative to Barack Obama. While Obama was still by far the most visible candidate, John McCain narrowed that advantage somewhat: 62% of Americans now say that Obama is the candidate they have been hearing most about in the news, while 19% cite John McCain.
Candidate Coverage and Candidate Visibility  | -Obama  | IMCCain  | Press Coverage  | Public Visibility  | 80  | 80  | 60  | 60  | 50  | 40  | 20  | 20  | 19  | June  | July  | August  | June  | July  | August  | Percent of campaign news stories  | Percent of public who have heard the  | featuring each candidate (Campaign  | most about each candidate (News  | Coverage jind ex content analysis)  | Interest jind ex surveys) 