In the run-up to this week’s Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama received a spike in press exposure as news outlets increased coverage of the pending convention, the presumed presidential nominee and his plans to announce a running mate. Obama was the subject of 47 percent more media coverage in U.S. media last week than John McCain, according to the LexisNexis Analytics 2008 election dashboard.

Meanwhile, the tone of the media coverage garnered by both candidates continues to be fairly similar, according to the dashboard’s Media Coverage Sentiment Index. An evaluation of the 5,214 stories that discussed Obama during the period of August 18-24 in U.S. print, broadcast and online media outlets found that 33% of the coverage was positive, 38% was neutral and 29% was negative. Of the 3,554 stories that discussed McCain during the same time frame and in the same group of U.S. media outlets, 36% were positive, 32% were neutral and 32% were negative.

• Last week’s results likely reflect a surge in stories surrounding the rumors and prognostications regarding Obama’s selection of a vice presidential running mate - culminating with his selection early Saturday morning of Joseph Biden.
• The data from last week are also a notable departure from the volume trends benchmarked by the LexisNexis election dashboard this summer. Although Obama has consistently garnered roughly one-third more media coverage than McCain since early-July, last week’s results show a spike in the volume of coverage for Obama.

The media sample for the index was created from a collection of more than 2,700 media outlets that includes virtually all major newspapers, magazines, Web sites, television and radio networks in the United States.

The LexisNexis Media Coverage Sentiment Index relies on sophisticated analytics that have been used by LexisNexis in business applications since 1995. LexisNexis is a leading global provider of business information solutions to a wide range of professionals in the legal, risk management, corporate, government, law enforcement, accounting and academic markets.