US Election 2004 Web Monitor

MEDIA STATEMENT
University of Western Australia
Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Five weeks prior to the US Presidential Election 2004, researchers at the University of Western Australia (UWA) have launched a new Web analysis system to track the candidates' performance on the campaign trail. Weekly snapshots of Web coverage reveal regional differences and contrast the perceptions of media, companies and environmental organisations.

www.ecoresearch.net/election2004

Project spokesperson, Professor Arno Scharl of UWA Business School, said the project's Web site at www.ecoresearch.net/election2004 afforded a unique view of the diverging perceptions of different interest groups. "There have been many attempts at monitoring the campaign performance of presidential candidates in real time, but most focus on public opinion rather than on media coverage," he said. "Our Web site provides this information at the touch of a button." 

Launching the Web site, Prof Scharl outlined how it works and presented the latest results. The project analyses the Web sites of the Fortune 1000 (the largest US corporations ranked by revenue), environmental organisations and international media from the US, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Processing these sites yields more than 500,000 documents each week, comprising about 125 million words in 11 million sentences. An automated process then identifies attention by counting the number of references to a candidate. It measures attitude by associating these references with positive and negative terms. Keywords, grouped by political party and geographic region, reflect current events associated with the candidates.

From 25,000 references to candidates on 23 Sep 2004, nearly two thirds reported on Bush/Cheney, and one third on Kerry/Edwards. Across all samples, the independent team of Ralph Nader received less than five percent of the attention. While Democratic contenders have been catching up over the last two weeks, media articles concerning the current US Administration still use a slightly more positive language. The Fortune 1000 also present the Republican candidates in a favourable light and allocate them more than 90% of their mentions. Given his poor environmental track record, environmental organisations publish the most critical articles about George W. Bush. 

Special reports complement the general statistics by relating media and candidates to environmental issues. The reports examine the data at a sentence level and provide diagrams to explore semantic relationships. Already available, an energy section investigates Web coverage on renewable energy, fossil fuels and nuclear power - a crucial aspect in light of recent geopolitical events and the global environmental impact of energy policy decisions.

The ECOresearch Network with more than 170 members is a research initiative of the University of Western Australia. It investigates new technologies to manage the explosive growth and dwindling lifespan of environmental information. Addressing the transition to knowledgebased economies, the network analyses the role of information systems in advocating sustainability and ecosystem protection.

MEDIA REFERENCE:
Prof Arno Scharl: +61-8-6488-3908, +61-411-067490
John Altham: +61-8-6488-2889, +61-427-176830

WEB SITE: www.ecoresearch.net/election2004
MEDIA RESOURCES: www.ecoresearch.net/election2004/download