Numbers: Our Data Library

This library contains all data PEJ creates or collects about the news media. The selections below will appear as charts you can customize. Use the menus on the left to filter the data according to your interests.

  • First Source in Lead Election Stories: 2004

    The candidates themselves were the sources readers were most likely to hear from in the campaign stories on news websites during the primary season in 2004.

  • Frame of Lead Election Stories: 2004

    A straight news account of the day’s events was the dominant frame of lead stories on news websites during the primary season in 2004 but what the candidates thought about policy and issues was negligible as a focus.

  • Number of Sources in Lead Election Stories: 2004

    The 2004 election was well covered by the online news media, with the majority of stories have seven or more sources.
  • Number of Stories on Election Front Pages of News Websites 2004: E-Politics

    The political front pages of news websites tended to feature 10 to 20 stories at a time in 2004, far more than could be available in a newspaper.
  • Original Reporting on Election Front Pages: 2004

    Overall, six in ten of the election stories on news websites studied during the presidential primary season in 2004 were original reporting.

  • Topics of Lead Election Stories: 2004

    A variety of topics dominated the lead stories of election news websites in 2004, but candidate performance on the stump and the battle ahead stood apart.

  • Trigger for Lead Election Stories: 2004

    Factors such as the candidates and election results—not issues of the press’ own design-- tended the trigger the campaign stories on news websites during the primary season in 2004.

  • Cross-Ownership and Ratings Performance

    Local TV stations that were owned by the same company as a newspaper or radio station in town were more likely than other stations to have declining ratings trends of TV stations studied between 1998 and 2002.

  • Local Ownership and Local Coverage

    The study found no pattern correlating the level of local topics in local TV news stories and local ownership.

  • Local vs. Non-Local Ownership and Quality Grade

    Locally owned TV stations were not more likely to produce higher quality newscasts than non-local owners in a PEJ five year examination of local news.