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New York, September 19, 2008: The McCain/Palin ticket has dominated the news coverage thus far in September, garnering significantly more statements than the Obama/Biden ticket. The question now is whether the Republican candidates can use this edge to focus the election coverage on their own positions.

“McCain and Palin have had significant momentum coming out of their convention,” says Roland Schatz, President of Media Tenor International, “but with the renewed focus on the U.S. economy it may be harder for them to maintain this level of coverage going forward. For now, though, they have the opportunity to control the agenda.”

According to Media Tenor´s data, McCain has a strong advantage when it comes to leadership and also has a lead in several other key issues both foreign and domestic, including healthcare policy. He also remains strongly ahead in the coverage of polls and predictions

“Obama has tried to capitalize on healthcare costs and concerns from the beginning,” notes Schatz. ”His plan, however, has been a frequent subject of criticism, and he´s increasingly being attacked on other health policy issues such as sex education in schools. McCain has been relatively silent on these topics, but that´s given him an advantage when compared with Obama´s strong negatives.”

In the face of economic turmoil, the leadership issue may be the most critical one facing the candidates right now though. “Obama is still maintaining an edge on economic issues,” Schatz says. “But this might not be enough to give him an advantage in light of the current market turmoil. Current U.S. economic conditions are largely being described as a leadership test, and that gives the advantage strongly to McCain,” he notes.

Schatz adds, however, that economic conditions may not be as bad as they seem. “The U.S. economy actually grew in the last two quarters, despite all the talk of recession. If the government is able to stabilize the financial industry, the economic and leadership issues around these events may prove to be less critical to the campaigns than they currently look.”

For the third time, International Media analysis company Media Tenor is offering a detailed analysis of the U.S. presidential campaign. TV news coverage of the leading Presidential contenders is scrutinized at a detailed level. “The methodology was developed 15 years ago and has been successfully used not only to analyze the 2000 and 2004 U.S. Presidential campaigns, but also for International politics,” Schatz explains. Media Tenor´s Presidential Campaign Watch focuses not only on candidate standings, but also on topics and sources, while adding an international perspective. Results of Media Tenor studies will be regularly published on MediaChannel.org.

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