October 18–October 22, 2004
Print Media: The Grand Rapids Press this week saw a slight decline in the amount of election 2004 coverage in the Grand Rapids Press. The GR Press ran eighteen election stories, not including the four "On the Trail" pieces that provide campaign schedules, quotes, and poll results. the majority of the articles were pulled form the AP although the Washington Post and Cox News Service were also used once each. Aside from the usual horse race coverage, there were several articles about the voting process itself, both in Michigan and also in Florida.
Local TV News Coverage The amount of Artie on the local TV news dedicated to the 2004 election was approximately the same as the previous week. This was somewhat surprising seeing as the previous week included the last presidential debate, an event that generated a lot of press coverage. This week saw fifty seven minutes of coverage on WZZM 13, Forty one minutes on WOOD 8. Data for WXMI 17 is unavailable as most of the weeks broadcasts were preempted by the MLB playoffs. WZZM 13's election air time was significantly boosted by their broadcasting ninety minute statements from local candidates during the 5:30pm and 11pm broadcasts.
Paid Political Ads This week saw an increase in the number of paid political ads, with one hundred and nineteen ads being broadcast during the local news. This total does not include complete data for WXMI 17 as many of their evening news broadcasts were preempted by baseball. As has been the case throughout most of this study, WOOD 8 ran the most ads with sixty one. WZZM 13 ran forty three and WXMI 17 ran fifteen. Thirty of the ads were from the Bush campaign, thirty one from the Kerry campaign, eight from the Republican National Committee, twelve from Let the Voters Decide, sixteen from the Markman for court Justice campaign and twenty from a new group opposed to Proposition 1 called No Casino Monopoly Vote No on Proposal 1.
