NEW YORK, July 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Results from the Dow Jones Insight - Olympics Media Pulse show that heading into the Opening Ceremonies, top global sponsors Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Visa are leading total media coverage with ad campaigns focused on goodwill for the Olympic Games. All three, which cumulatively garnered 59 percent of traditional media mentions and 67 percent of social media mentions during the period of July 15-28, have introduced ads centered on themes of global unity, working together and achieving dreams. Athlete Doping Along With Pollution Makes Things Murky for Beijing As the start of the Beijing Olympic Games draws closer, coverage of athlete doping is starting to catch up with the hot-button issue of pollution concerns, according to analysis of traditional and social media sources tracked by Dow Jones Insight. While coverage of Beijing's polluted air and water was more frequent (2,094 mentions) than doping (1,186 mentions) during the 10 days from July 14-23, doping coverage has been increasing in the wake of the World Anti-Doping Agency's vows that the Beijing Games would be "the cleanest Games in history." -- Mentions of doping increased to a high of 177 on July 24 with coverage of U.S. swimmer Jessica Hardy testing positive for the banned stimulant clenbuterol. Hardy may pursue appeals with the American Arbitration Association and the Court of Arbitration for Sport in order to hold onto her spot on the U.S. team. -- Doping coverage was also driven by news that Greek sprinter Katerina Thanou was included on Greece's official roster for Beijing. Thanou served a two-year ban after missing a mandatory doping test prior to the 2004 Athens Games. Thanou had won a silver medal in the 100 meters in Sydney in 2000. -- The issue of doping will likely remain in the headlines as Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) Chief Mike Fennell has confirmed that a member of Jamaica's athletics team for the Beijing Games tested positive for a banned substance, but he has refused to identify the athlete. Unlike Athens in 2004, Beijing is Under Media Microscope for Environmental Issues Beijing is not the first Olympic host city subjected to scrutiny of its air quality and pollution. In the months before the start of the 2004 Athens Olympics, that city's notorious air pollution was the subject of some media coverage. But it was small compared to the attention focused on Beijing's problems thus far. Coverage of Beijing's environmental issues has been more than 10 times that of Athens' in the seven months prior to each event, according to analysis by Dow Jones Insight of more than 2,000 mainstream media sources published during both time periods. From January 1 through July 31, 2004, there were 353 documents mentioning environmental issues related to the Athens Games in the analyzed newspapers, magazines and newswires. In comparison, during the first seven months of 2008, there were 4,216 documents mentioning environmental issues related to Beijing as the host city. The striking difference in coverage may be a reflection of current growing worldwide concern over the state of the environment and the effects of global warming, whereas before the 2004 Games the primary focus of attention was on domestic and international terrorism in Greece. Sprinters Powell and Gay Edge Out Phelps to Lead Press Coverage For the first time since Dow Jones Insight began analyzing media coverage heading into the Beijing Olympic Games, Michael Phelps is not the most talked-about athlete, at least in traditional media sources (print and online). During the period of July 15-28, Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell garnered the most coverage, with 17 percent of the total 3,807 mentions of athletes being tracked. Following closely behind among the top 10 athletes was U.S. sprinter Tyson Gay, with 13 percent. Powell and Gay, along with Jamaica's Usain Bolt, are expected to fight it out for the gold medal in the glamour event of the track and field competition -- the 100 meters. In third was Australian swimmer Grant Hackett with 444 mentions for 12%, followed by Phelps with 432 mentions for 11%. U.S. gymnast Paul Hamm was next with 365 mentions for 10%. Hamm was back in the news this week when he announced he was withdrawing from the team because of concerns that his wrist injury would not be fully healed by the start of the Games. Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang and U.S. swimmer Dara Torres each had 9% of the total mentions. Australian hurdler Jana Rawlinson had 254 mentions, or 7%, mainly covering her failure to make the 2008 Australian team. Rounding out the top 10 were U.S. track athletes Jeremy Wariner, with 7%, and Allyson Felix, with 6%. However, when it comes to social media, Phelps is still the fan favorite, dominating coverage in message boards and blogs with 28 percent of the mentions tracked, which was nearly double the mentions for Dara Torres, who had the second-highest total. Top Ten Athletes (Traditional Press) 1. Asafa Powell 2. Tyson Gay 3. Grant Hackett 4. Michael Phelps 5. Paul Hamm 6. Liu Xiang 7. Dara Torres 8. Jana Rawlinson 9. Jeremy Wariner 10. Allyson Felix Top Ten Athletes (Social Media) 1. Michael Phelps 2. Dara Torres 3. Tyson Gay 4. Paul Hamm 5. Asafa Powell 6. Liu Xiang 7. Shawn Johnson 8. Allyson Felix 9. Paula Radcliffe 10. Jeremy Wariner The Dow Jones Insight - Olympics Media Pulse provides a high-level view of a competitive media landscape and demonstrates how athletes, sponsors and issues are covered in the media and how that coverage changes over time. Dow Jones Insight combines proven research methodologies, trusted content and advanced text-mining and visualization tools to deliver strategic qualitative and quantitative media measurement metrics. Organizations use the analysis to nurture their reputation, demonstrate the effectiveness of their communications strategies and achieve business objectives. The platform processes nearly a million articles, Web pages, blogs and message board posts per day. The charts are available at http://www.dowjonesinsight.com/olympics and can be reproduced in print and online media. For further information about the Dow Jones Insight solutions or The Dow Jones Insight - 2008 Olympics Media Pulse, please contact Shannon Sullivan at +1 609 627 2312 or . ABOUT DOW JONES Dow Jones & Company (http://www.dowjones.com/) is a News Corporation company (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NWS, NWSLV; http://www.newscorp.com/). Dow Jones is a leading provider of global business news and information services. Its Consumer Media Group publishes The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch and the Far Eastern Economic Review. Its Enterprise Media Group includes Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones Factiva, Dow Jones Client Solutions, Dow Jones Indexes and Dow Jones Financial Information Services. Its Local Media Group operates community-based information franchises. Dow Jones owns 50% of SmartMoney and 33% of STOXX Ltd. and provides news content to radio stations in the U.S. DATASOURCE: Dow Jones & Company CONTACT: Shannon Sullivan for Dow Jones & Company, +1-609-627-2312, Fax: +1-609-627-2301, Web site: http://www.dowjones.com/ http://www.dowjonesinsight.com/olympics http://www.newscorp.com/

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