Framing the 2008 Iowa Democratic Caucuses

Abstract

This study identifies patterns of second-level intermedia agenda setting in the framing of the 2008 race for the Democratic U.S. presidential nomination through a content analysis of four major news sources, nine prominent political blogs across the partisan spectrum, and the press releases of the three leading candidates. A comparison of cross-lagged correlations in the four weeks prior to the Iowa caucuses reveals that the news media and the Hillary Clinton campaign had an intermedia agenda-setting effect. Rather than controlling the campaign narrative, political bloggers mostly followed the lead set by the journalists.