Not since the Kennedy-Nixon debates has media played such an important role in a presidential election. The Internet, the new kid on the political media block, is proving highly influential in everything from fundraising to myth busting. To track the interplay of candidate web buzz, political advertising, pundit programming, entertainment parodies, convention and debate coverage requires an integrated, multi-media view.

If election night were a television program, its 71 million plus viewers would place it second only to the Super Bowl as the most watched event of 2008. In a year of remarkable sporting events, coverage of the Presidential qualifying rounds also drew huge ratings, as the candidates sparred in primaries, conventions, and debates in hopes of becoming the last one standing.
Sports metaphors in politics and the intermingling of the two genres are nothing new: retired athletes fill the halls of congress, Presidents throw out first pitches, and Championship teams …

Surging online activity on Election Day accompanied record voter turn-out at the polls, as voters flocked to current events and news sites to follow election results.
Web traffic to sites within the “Current Events and Global News” category was up 27% on Election Day, versus the previous Tuesday (Oct. 28), Nielsen Online reported Wednesday.
The candidates’ websites also drew healthy traffic on Election Day.  Obama’s site had 1.2 million unique visitors on Nov. 4, while McCain’s site had 479,000 unique visitors.

Rank
(by
Nov. 4 UA)
Website
Unique Audience:
Oct. 28, 2008
(in 000s)
Unique Audience:
Nov. 4, 2008
(in 000s)
% Change

1
CNN Digital Network
8,496
12,847
51%

2
MSNBC …

TV coverage of the 2008 U.S. election results drew more than 71 million average viewers Tuesday night, according to Nielsen.
Live news coverage was carried on both broadcast and cable networks, including Spanish-language networks: ABC, CBS, FOX Broadcast, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, BBC America, BET, CNBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, and TV One.
Nielsen’s audience estimates include primetime coverage, from 8pm to 11pm, in the Eastern and Central Time Zones and live in Mountain and Pacific Time Zones.

Audience estimates for the 8pm to 12:30am time frame, which featured Sen. McCain’s concession speech and …

ABC’s 9pm to 11pm coverage of the U.S. presidential election results was the top-rated primetime telecast on Election Night, Tuesday, November 4, 2008.
NBC’s 8pm to 11:30pm coverage of the voting results claimed second place, and ABC’s 8pm to 9pm Election Night coverage rounded out the top three.
Election returns coverage on CBS, FOX, and Univision dominated the rest of the top ten.

Rank
Program
Network
Viewers (P2+)

1
VOTE 2008-9:00PM(S)-11/04/2008
ABC
14,185,000

2
DECISION ‘08 PRIME(S)-11/04/2008
NBC
12,462,000

3
VOTE 2008-8:00PM(S)-11/04/2008
ABC
11,206,000

4
CAMPAIGN 2008 ELECT 3(S)-11/04/2008
CBS
7,410,000

5
YOU DECIDE 2008(S)-11/04/2008
FOX
4,733,000

6
DESTINO 2008 7 11/4(S)-11/04/2008
UNI
4,535,000

7
DESTINO 2008 8 11/4(S)-11/04/2008
UNI
4,474,000

8
DESTINO 2008 6 11/4(S)-11/04/2008
UNI
4,365,000

9
DESTINO 2008 5 11/4(S)-11/04/2008
UNI
3,669,000

10
DESTINO 2008 4 11/4(S)-11/04/2008
UNI
3,505,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (November …

Barack Obama’s historic election victory set bloggers abuzz.
In the wake of winning the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Obama was mentioned in almost 20% of all blog discussions, Nielsen Online reported Wednesday.
In comparison, John McCain was referenced by just 6.3% of all blog entries posted on November 5, according to Nielsen.

Where did Web-savvy political junkies head to keep up with Election Day news back in 2004?
According to Nielsen Online, CNN’s website drew more than 3.3 million unique visitors surfing the Web from home on November 4, 2004.
Meanwhile, MSNBC’s and Yahoo! News’ websites attracted unique audiences of more than 2.7 million and 2.6 million at home, respectively.

On the eve of the presidential election, both candidates made hefty boosts in their advertising in seven key swing states: Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
On Sunday, Nov. 2, McCain ran just 708 TV ad units in those seven states — 48% fewer than the 1,463 ad units Obama ran that day. 
But on Monday, Nov. 3, Obama’s lead in these key battleground states shrank to 79% — or a margin of 1,510 ad units, after McCain’s campaign increased the number of TV ad units it ran in those …

During the final weekend preceding the presidential election, Sen. Barack Obama ran 77% more TV ads than Sen. John McCain (5,947 vs. 3,358) in seven key swing states: Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
Despite trailing Obama in terms of the total number of TV ad units placed, McCain showed a much larger percentage increase in TV advertising from the previous weekend (Friday October 24 thru Sunday, October 26) to this past weekend (Friday, October 31 thru Sunday, November 2).  
McCain bumped his TV ad units up by 76% overall in the seven battleground states Nielsen tracked, while Obama increased his advertising …

Television viewing on Election Night has changed dramatically over the years, considering the expansion of technology and the number of different channels available to the average home. In 1960 for example, in the close race between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, most U.S. homes had only a few channels available so the Election Night returns captured virtually all the audience with more than 65% of all homes tuning in. Now with more than 40 channels available to the average home, the percentage of homes watching political coverage …