After a brief absence, the Gulf oil
spill returned to the top of the news agenda last week. But the level of recent
coverage suggests that the story that has dominated the mainstream media for
more than two months is finally losing some steam.
Fueled partly by concerns about the
impact of Hurricane Alex on the cleanup, the environmental disaster was the No.
1 story filling 15% of the newshole from June 28-July 4. That is down from 23%
the previous week, when the subject was the No. 2 story, narrowly trailing the
General McChrystal /Afghanistan saga. The week before that (June 14-20) the spill accounted for 44% of the newshole.
Thus, the level of coverage has dropped
by about two-thirds in the past several weeks. The once-hot political
narrative—the performance of the Obama White House in the crisis—has
diminished. And while other developments could produce a spike in coverage, the
relief well that may provide a breakthrough in
containment is not expected to be ready until August.
Two other subjects in the news vied with
the spill for attention.
The No. 2 story, at 13%, was the U.S.
economy, which reached its highest level of coverage since the week of May 3-9
(also 13%). Much of last week’s news was gloomy as new data cast further doubts
on the strength and staying power of the modest recovery to date.
Next, at 11% were the hearings for
Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. While still the third-biggest story last
week, this is just half the coverage devoted to the Sotomayor proceedings (22%)
during the week of July 13-19, 2009. Indeed, one narrative thread in the Kagan
hearings has been their largely drama-free nature, which can also mean fewer
headlines.
The fourth-biggest story was a throwback
to the Cold War. The June 27 arrests of 10 people in the U.S. accused of being
part of a Russian spy ring filled 8% of the newshole. One of those arrested,
28-year-old Anna Chapman (aka Anya Kushchenko), spiced up the coverage considerably with news
accounts calling her “the bombshell of the bunch” and the “tale’s sexy
antagonist” and the “flame-haired Russian stunner.”
The No. 5 story, (Afghanistan, also at
5%) highlighted the lack of consistent coverage of the nation’s longest war.
Just one week earlier, Afghanistan had accounted for 25% of the newshole when
the removal of commander Stanley McChrystal served to rivet, albeit
temporarily, the news media. But last week, with the Beltway intrigue
surrounding Obama’s decision to replace McChrystal with General David Petraeus
resolved, coverage plunged by 80%.
The
Oil Spill
At 15% of the newshole last week, the
environmental disaster in the Gulf generated its lowest level of coverage since
the week of April 19-25 (5%) when the oil rig had just exploded and the true dimensions
of the crisis were not known. And the significant drop in coverage—from 44% the
week of June 14-20—suggests that barring new dramatic developments, media
interest in the story may be flagging after a long run of major coverage. Last
week, as has often been the case in the past two months, the spill was first
and foremost a television story, finishing as the No. 1 topic in two
sectors—cable news (26%) and network news (23%).
The cleanup, containment and impact of
the spill was the biggest storyline last week, accounting for almost half the
coverage as the media reported on, among other things, a rough tourist season
in the Gulf. But the next biggest theme—at about one-fifth of the coverage—was
the potential threat posed by Hurricane Alex, which made landfall west of the
affected area.
“The Louisiana bayou…is nowhere near
Hurricane Alex and yet, with the Gulf full of crude oil, the cleanup effort is
already getting hurt by the storm,” noted NBC anchor Brian Williams on the June
30 newscast. “They are in for days of rough seas, high tides, high winds…”
The subject of BP’s role and culpability
in the disaster accounted for about one-fifth of the coverage, although that is
down somewhat from the attention to that storyline in recent weeks. Anderson
Cooper’s June 29 CNN program focused on another criticism of the oil
company—its use of so-called reporters (who are company employees) to produce
more positive reports on the situation in the Gulf.
On Cooper’s show, CNN contributor and
Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz took BP to task, asserting that that,
“There isn't one person in America who is going to be
fooled by this propaganda campaign. The reporting has been so positive, that
you would think that they were on BP's payroll. Oh, that's right; they are on
BP's payroll. Maybe that explains it.”
A
Grim Economy
The condition of the U.S. economy was
the No. 1 story in two sectors last week, radio news (23%) and newspapers (11%)
as the employment situation was the top storyline followed by fears of another
recession.
And the news was anything but cheerful
as evidence mounted that the already tepid recovery might be slowing further.
“Fears that the economic recovery is
fizzling grew Thursday after the government and private sector issued weak
reports on a number of fronts,” reported an AP story. “Unemployment claims are
up, home sales are plunging without government incentives and manufacturing
growth is slowing.”
A July 2 New York Times report also took a notably
pessimistic view.
“The United States added just 83,000
private-sector jobs in June, a dishearteningly low number that could add to the
growing number of economists who warn that the economic recovery has slowed to
the point that it cannot generate enough job growth,” the story said. “Over all, the nation lost 125,000 jobs [as] most
of the lost jobs came as temporary workers hired by the federal government for
the 2010 Census exited their jobs. The unemployment rate, based on a different
survey, declined to 9.5 percent in June from the previous 9.7 percent. This
decline came only because the nation’s labor force shrank by 652,000 jobs, as
many people stopped looking for work.”
The
Kagan Nomination
The hearings for Supreme Court nominee
Elena Kagan represented the No. 1 story in one media sector last week, online
news at 14%. And the coverage reveals that
Obama’s second Supreme Court nomination was not deemed as newsworthy as his
first when Sonia Sotomayor’s Latina heritage and question about how that might
affect her decisions fueled the media narrative. Not only did the Kagan hearings generate only
half as much coverage of the Sotomayor hearings, but the announcement of her nomination
also generated far less attention (13% the week of May 10-16, 2010) than
Obama’s decision to name Sotomayor (24% the week of May 25-31, 2009).
Indeed, there was little inherent drama
and even fewer fireworks in last week’s proceedings.
A June 30 USA
Today story declared that, “On the first
day of Senate questioning, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan deflected GOP
challenges” and “declined entreaties by Democrats to attack conservative
rulings.”
“The testiest
exchange.” wrote USA Today reporters John Biskupic and Kathy Kiely, “was
spurred by senior Senate Judiciary Committee Republican Jeff Sessions of
Alabama, who challenged Kagan's action limiting military recruiting as Harvard
Law School dean.”
The next day, a Los Angeles Times
account concluded that, “After completing two days of testimony before the
Senate Judiciary Committee that was alert, thoughtful, and punctuated with
flashes of wit, Elena Kagan now seems almost certain to become the nation's
112th justice on the Supreme Court.”
The story also made note of “one minor
slip,” when Kagan answered a question about whether the government could pass a
law forcing people to eat fruits and vegetables with a “windy, contextual,
cautious analysis,” that made her seem somewhat out of touch.
Despite the relatively minor level of
attention, Kagan was still the top news figure for the week. She registered as
lead newsmaker in 9% of the stories from June 28-July 4. (To be considered a
lead newsmaker, someone must appear in at least 50% of that story.) She was also a lead newsmaker in 9% of the
stories the week of May 10-16, when her name was placed in nomination.
The
Rest of the Week’s News
A classic breaking news story, the
crackdown on the alleged Russian spy ring, was the week’s fourth-biggest subject
at 8% of the newshole. It generated the most coverage in the more
internationally-oriented online sector, at 11% of the newshole. A good deal of
the coverage focused on whether the incident would prove to be a setback in
what appears to be warming U.S.-Russia relations. And the arrest of attractive
28-year-old Anna Chapman, reported to enjoy the New York club scene, proved to
be irresistible media fodder, particularly for the tabloids. The New York Post went with a photo of a
largely undraped Chapman (reportedly provided by an ex-husband) above the
headline “From Russia with Love.”
And while media’s attention to
Afghanistan fell dramatically this past week (5% vs. 25 % a week earlier), it
still claimed the fifth spot. Most of
the coverage was Washington-focused with the easy Senate confirmation of
General Petraeus to succeed General McChrystal as top U.S. commander in
Afghanistan. The news from the battlefield was that June—when the death toll
for the U.S. and its allies surpassed 100—was the deadliest month in the nearly
nine year-old war.
Newsmakers
of the Week
As she went before the senators who will
vote on her nomination, Elena Kagan proved to be the week’s top news figure, President
Obama and his administration came next, a lead newsmaker in 6% of the week’s
stories—down significantly from 13% the previous week when his decision to
remove General McChrystal as top commander in Afghanistan was at the center of
the news agenda.
The No. 3 newsmaker was Virginia
Democrat Robert Byrd (at 4%) who died last week at age 92 following the longest
tenure in U.S. Senate history. He was followed by McChrystal’s replacement,
General David Petraeus (also at 3%), who formally took command in the war zone
last week.
The No. 5 newsmaker
(at 1%) was former Vice-President Al Gore after the news last week that the
Portland Oregon Police Department was re-opening
a 2006 case stemming from allegations that Gore engaged in sexual misconduct with
a masseuse.
About the NCI
PEJ’s weekly News Coverage Index examines the news agenda of 52
different outlets from five sectors of the media: print, online, network
TV, cable and radio. (See List of Outlets.) The weekly study, which includes
some 1,100 stories, is designed to provide news consumers, journalists
and researchers with hard data about what stories and topics the media
are covering, the trajectories of that media narrative and differences
among news platforms. The percentages are based on "newshole," or the
space devoted to each subject in print and online and time on radio and
TV. (See Our Methodology.) In addition, these reports also
include a rundown of the week’s leading newsmakers, a designation given
to people who account for at least 50% of a given story.
Mark Jurkowitz of PEJ
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