An extended presidential honeymoon? coverage of Barack Obama in the New York Times during 2009 and 2010

Content analysis of front page New York Times stories during the first and second years of the Barack Obama presidency revealed news coverage that was far more positive in tone than the norm for recent U.S. presidents, particularly with respect to foreign policy coverage. While coverage of Obama was somewhat less positive during 2010 when compared to 2009, the Obama findings overall reveal a much longer honeymoon than seen in the past. Coverage of specific problematic policy areas, like offshore drilling issues in the wake of the BP oil spill, was particularly negative. Coverage of arms control matters was very positive in tone in 2010 for Obama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. Keywords: Political Communications, Political News Coverage, New York Times, Barack Obama, Presidential Honeymoon, Press-Presidential Relations. Durante los primeros dos anos de su presidencia Barack Obama gozo de una cobertura muy positiva comparada con la de sus antecesores en sus respectivos primeros bienios. Esto es lo que destaca un analisis de contenido de primeras planas del New York Times que comprende el periodo mencionado. A pesar de que el ano 2010 (segundo ano) fue menos positivo que 2009, el analisis de contenido revela que la presidencia de Obama se distingue de la de sus antecesores por haber logrado la luna de miel mas prolongada con la opinion publica. La cobertura de areas problematicas de politicas como la perforacion de pozos marinos en la etapa inicial del derrame de BP en el Golfo de Mexico fue particularmente negativa. En contraste, la cobertura de la politica de control de armas fue muy positiva, como tambien lo fue el que Obama recibiera el Premio Nobel 2009.
Barack Obama was the first president in years to enjoy a 'honeymoon' in the mass media during his first months in office (Farnsworth and Lichter 2006, 2011b, 2012). Newspaper and [...]