---

Center for Media and Public Affairs

2100 L Street, NW * Suite 300 * Washington, D.C. 20037 Phone (202) 223-2942 * Fax (202) 872-4014

SHORT SOUND BITES -- Throughout "Junior Tuesday," candidate sound bites averaged only 7 seconds, compared to 8 seconds in 1992, 9 in 1988, and 42 in 1968.

The nine Republican presidential candidates received a combined 1 hour, 51 minutes of air time, compared with 10 hours, 47 minutes for the journalists who cover them.

These are the latest findings from CMPA's ongoing scientific content analysis of Campaign '96 news coverage. This report examines the topics of all 462 campaign stores (14 hours 46 minutes of air time) broadcast on the ABC, CBS and NBC evenings news from January 1, 1996 through "Junior Tuesday" (March 4, 1996).

CANDIDATE EVALUATIONS (431)
	Positive	Negative
All GOP Candidates	39%	61%
Alexander	39%	61%
Buchanan	45%	55%
Dole	39%	61%
Forbes	35%	65%
RATING THE CAMPAIGN (n = 318 criticisms)
	Number of Criticisms
Campaign too Negative	139
Ads Harmful	61
Voters Unsatisfied	26
Avoid Issues	24
Money too Important	21
Other Criticisms	47
LEADING NEWS TOPIC
	Number of Stories
Horse race	209
Candidate Behavior	148
Policy Issues	134
Strategy & Tactics	125
Voters	67
TOP ISSUES
	Number of Stories
Tone of Campaign	36
Taxes	31
Economy	22
Whitewater	17
Trade	17
Abortion	16
Budget	15
Forbes' Spending	14
Jobs	14
Buchanan's Extremism	13
Forbes' Negative Ads	10

ElectionWatch is published weekly during the primary and general election season by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA), a nonpartisan and nonprofit research and educational organization. CMPA measures the tone of news coverage by examining all broadcast or published statements from reporters and their news sources. Major support for this research comes from the John and Mary Markle Foundation. Results of CMPA research from Campaign '92 and Campaign '88 are now available in Good Intentions Make Bad News: Why Americans Hate Campaign Journalism (Rowman and Littlefield, 1995)