For quite some time, Sen. Barack Obama has dominated media coverage. So much so that even the Washington Post’s ombudsman had to call out her own paper for skewed coverage.

Now, via the Project for Excellence in Journalism, we learn that a shift has occured, thanks to Sen. John McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin:

For the first time in three months, John McCain generated more coverage than Democratic hopeful Barack Obama last week. But McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, earned even more attention during Republican National Convention week, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Palin appeared as a significant or dominant factor in 60% of campaign stories the week of Sept.1-7 while McCain registered in 52% of the stories. Obama appeared as a key figure in 22% of election coverage last week. His VP pick, Joe Biden, was a leading newsmaker in 2%.

Taken together, storylines focusing on Palin accounted for 45% of the campaign newshole last week. The biggest Palin narrative was the response to her selection (28%), which included her Sept. 3 convention speech. Coverage of her personal and family life accounted for 10% and stories about her public record registered at 6%. The claims made by the McCain campaign that the media were unfairly attacking Palin constituted 1% of last week’s campaign coverage.

Full report can be read here.

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