Election Night Coverage November 4, 2008
Posted by gjchatalas in Digital Democracy, Election, Media, Politics.Tags: 2008 election, Bellweather, Blogs, Media
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Blogs Keeping Up with Big Media Coverage So Far
Popular political blogs Talking Point Memo and Political Wire are being cautious in their tone, but exit polls and numbers from the states where polls have closed are indicating Obama is looking good in crucial state Virginia and close in Indiana. Political Wire says it has lots of numbers, but is taking them with a grain of salt at this point; however, if the numbers are accurate, “battleground states will probably be called much earlier than expected.
Both these sites have great maps where you can zero in on a county to see the tallies as the votes are counted. These rival that which we see by the big media sites like CNN and MSNBC. And as of now, I see nothing on the big guys’ sites that I don’t see on TPM and Political Wire in terms of results and information.
Meanwhile, hardcore liberal blog Daily Kos says Virginia is a done deal for Obama… and not even close. Oops… it just changed… too close to call after all. That’s obviously an overly enthusiastic blog at the moment.
Small Indiana County May Portend National Trend
Vigo County in western Indiana is showing Obama with a 57-42 lead with 80 percent of the votes counted. In 2004, Bush won Vigo 53-46.
Furthermore, Vigo is described as one of the more reliable bellweather counties in the nation. It’s only missed on the president twice since 1892. And its final numbers have proven to be remarkably close to those of the country.
These posts first appeared on November 4, 2008 at the 2008 Digital Democracy Election Blog
Internet Grows Greatly as Source for Campaign News November 4, 2008
Posted by gjchatalas in Digital Democracy, Election, Media, Politics.Tags: 2008 election, campaign news, Internet, Media
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Most political enthusiasts will be following the election coverage of various media sources tonight. I, for one, will be checking out blogs and results online, but will also be tuned into the television. As it turns out, I’m not alone.
A just-released study shows that television continues to be the main source of news related to the 2008 campaigns. But the Internet has grown substantially in this regard, pulling ahead of newspapers. The report, by the Pew Research Center, demonstrates that while the use of television and newspapers for campaign news has remained essentially stagnant, the web has shown a significant increase since 2004, from 10 percent to 33 percent.
As we might expect, the growth is in large part due to the younger set. Nearly 50 percent in the 18-29 age range list the Internet as a main resource for such news, and it’s at 37 percent for those age 30-49.
So as we’re turning to television and the web to track election day activity, realize this combination is being increasingly relied upon by a great portion of the country.
