Net Election

By the Numbers, Part 7

Slate, the Industry Standard, and washingtonpost.com join forces to examine the effect of the Internet on Campaign 2000.

The Internet was supposed to play a major role at this year’s Republican and Democratic National Conventions. But has the online medium found a successful partner in politics? As always, a look at the numbers offers an insight on the real story.

1. Number of press credentials granted for the Democratic National Convention: 15,000

2. Number of online media companies at the convention: 42

3. Number of print, TV, and radio companies at the convention: 125

4. Total price tag for the Democratic National Convention: $35.3 million

5. Amount of corporate new economy contributions to the Democratic convention: $3,250,000

6. TV company that dedicated the most time to the Democratic National Convention, and time dedicated: C-SPAN; 30 hours, 39 minutes

7. TV company that dedicated the least time to the Democratic National Convention, and time dedicated: NBC; 3 hours, 15 minutes

8. Most heavily visited nonpartisan political site from Aug. 14-17: vote.com

9. Total unique visitors to vote.com during those four days: 52,905

10. Number of nonpartisan political Web sites that made Nielsen NetRatings’ traffic count cutoff of 51,000 daily unique visitors: 1

11. Number of major newspaper stories about online media’s coverage of the two party conventions: 60

12. Number of Internet media stories about print coverage of the Democratic National Convention: 0

13. Percentage of Internet users in a sample of approximately 100 who logged on to find convention coverage on Day 1 of the Democratic National Convention, and the average time they spent watching online: just more than 1 percent; 10 minutes

14. Number of people in the sample of 100 who went to a convention chat room on Day 1 of the Democratic National Convention: 0

15. Number of speakers at the Democratic National Convention who said the word “Internet” in their speeches: 11

16. Number of speakers at the Democratic National Convention who said “new economy” in their speeches: 3

17. Length of Vice President Al Gore’s speech: 44 minutes, 5,740 words

18. Length of President Clinton’s speech: 42 minutes, 4,201 words

19. Length of Tipper Gore’s speech: 13 minutes (including video), 322 words (excluding video)

20. Length of first lady Hillary Clinton’s speech: 18 minutes, 1,714 words

Sources

1. Washington Post

2. National Journal Convention Daily

3. National Journal Convention Daily

4. Washington Post

5. Center for Responsive Politics

6. C-SPAN

7. C-SPAN

8. Nielsen NetRatings

9. Nielsen NetRatings

10. Nielsen NetRatings

11. Lexis-Nexis search

12. Google search

13. Vanishing Voter Project

14. Vanishing Voter Project

15. C-SPAN

16. C-SPAN

17. SpeakOut.com, Associated Press (transcription by eMediaMillWorks)

18. SpeakOut.com, www.dems2000.com

19. SpeakOut.com, www.dems2000.com

20. SpeakOut.com, Associated Press (transcription by eMediaMillWorks)