PEJ: Negative Newt Gingrich Coverage on the Rise

Weekly election report says Romney slipped to second place in terms of negative coverage

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/6/2012 5:34:34 PM

After back-to-back defeats in Florida and Nevada, Newt Gingrich's negative coverage was on the rise, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism's weekly election coverage report.
 
According to its content analysis of national news outlets for the week of Jan. 30-Feb. 5, 41% of the coverage of Gingrich was negative compared to 24% positive. That was a big change from the previous week, when it was about an even split of 29% negative to 27% positive.
 
Romney, who had led in negative coverage the week before, was still at 38% negative, but now only good enough for second place. His positive coverage was up slightly from 25% to 29%.
 
According to PEJ, Romney has started to pull away in amount of coverage, with almost two-thirds of the stories (67%) focusing "significantly" on the candidate.
 
The study looks at the "tone and volume" of coverage, combining human coding with algorithmic analysis.