Year in the News Interactive Answers Media Coverage Questions

 
The U.S. recession—which erupted into a full-blown crisis with the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008—led the mainstream news media in 2009. It registered at 20.3% of the overall newshole for the year. In the first quarter the passing of the $787 stimulus bill caused coverage to spike to nearly 37%. The trajectory of the story trailed off during the rest of the year, filling 18.5% in the second quarter; 13.3% in the third and 13.4% in the fourth.

The downward trajectory of the story was also a trend in newspapers—the media sector that devoted the most attention to the economy last year (25.2%). The story accounted for 39.2% of newspaper front pages in the first quarter; 25.7% in the second; 19.9% in the third and 17.2% in the fourth. The story was even bigger in smaller papers that tend to focus more on the local angle of the economics story. There, economic issues accounted for 30.9% of the newshole in 2009.

These statistics and answers to your own questions about media coverage are available in the Year in the News Interactive—a new feature in the State of the News Media 2010 report. The Year in the News Interactive enables people to easily explore and answer their media coverage questions. Users can also create, save and embed custom charts.