Opposition leader Bill Shorten is not only doing better than expected in the polls, he’s impressively clawing back the massive lead Turnbull had in media exposure, too.
According to media monitoring firm Meltwater, Turnbull snared 80 per cent of mentions on social media and 57 per cent in news media when the election was announced in the first week of May. Shorten, on the other hand, got a mere 18 per cent of social media chatter and 30 per cent of mainstream media mentions in the openings days of the campaign.
But what a difference a couple of weeks make. According to updated Meltwater data, between the 16th and 22nd of May, the Labor leader snared 40 per cent of mainstream media mentions while the PM held his lead with 46 per cent.
Over the same period, Greens leader Richard Di Natale got nine per cent of the mainstream news coverage and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce just five per cent. Although it’s unclear if all of Di Natale’s press was favourable after it was revealed he failed to declare an investment property and was allegedly caught underpaying a nanny during the week.
However, when it comes to social media mentions, Mr Turnbull is still killing it (73 per cent); however, when it came to actual party mentions, Labor was on top (48 per cent versus the Libs 37 per cent).
