Whats in a Name? How the media sways the public: An Introduction

The more you see something the more "Real" it is.

The more you read a statement or name the more real it becomes in the average mind.

The less you hear, read or see something, the less viable it becomes.

With me so far?

Today I took a look at three on-line news sources covering Politics (FOX-CNN-MSNBC). I took a look at the various headlines on the Politics page, and at the main featured stories for each news source in an attempt to understand the "equal" coverage concept of news and if it exists. What I came away with was some interesting information to ponder.

In general as of this writing the candidates are ranked as follows:

Romney 24%

Paul 23%

Santorum 15%

Gingrich 12%

Perry 11%

Bachman 6%

---------------------------------

FOX News:

In the headline Political story for FOX News Romney was mentioned by name 4 times (12%), Paul 4 times (12%), Santorum 14 times (42%), Gingrich 4 times (12%), Perry 3 times (9%) and Bachman 4 times (12%). 

CNN:

In the headline Political story for CNN News Romney was mentioned by name 22 times (32%), Paul 8 times (11%), Santorum 11 times (16%), Gingrich 8 times (11%), Perry 14 times (20%) and Bachman 6 times (9%). 

MSNBC:

In the headline Political story for MSNBC News Romney was mentioned by name 13 times (25%), Paul 11 times (21%), Santorum 14 times (27%), Gingrich 6 times (12%), Perry 3 times (6%) and Bachman 5 times (9%).

-------------------------------

No favortism can be seen in those figures, wave the hand, "These are not the droids you are looking for."

-------------------------------

When you combine all the networks above you have Romney mentioned 39 times, Paul mentioned 23 times, Santorum mentioned 39 times, Gingrich mentioned 18 times, Perry mentioned 20 times and Bachman mentioned 15 times.

Or in percentages Romney mentioned approximately 26% of the time, Paul 14%, Santorum 26%, Gingrich 12%, Perry 13% and Bachman 6%, which is odd when you compare against the standings given at the beginning of this article. Especially when you compare the Top 3.

--------------------------------------

Now In these three News web sites I looked at "all" the Political news story titles on the political portion of the site and found other interesting information. Romney was featured in 9 story titles on all three sites (30% all aprox), Paul 7 (20%) stories, Santorum 7 (20%), Gingrich 6 (17%) , Perry 6 (17%), and Bachman 1 (1/2%). and further when you review the "connotation" of the story titles against the name reference Romney had 2 of 9 (22%) sounding "Negative", Paul had 4 of 7 (58%), Santorum 0 of 7, Gingrich 0 of 6, Perry 0 of 6 and Bachman 1 of 1 (100%).

-----------------------------------------

Nothing to see here folks! Just fair and balanced reporting without any attempt to influence the voters minds.

The marketing lesson here is: don't mention a name if you don't want it to be "real", and when you are forced to mention a name you don't want to in order to appear to be fair and balanced make sure you mention it in a negative and dismissive light.