A storm system that spawned the deadliest
tornado in decades, killing more than 100 residents of Joplin Missouri, last
week registered as thebiggest
weather story since the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in
Journalism began monitoring the press.
From May 23-May 29, the Midwest tornado
and subsequent storms accounted for 22% of the newshole as measured by PEJ’s weekly
News Coverage Index. Previously the biggest weather week since PEJ began
tracking news in January 2007 was September 1-7, 2008, when Hurricanes Hanna
and Gustav combined to fill 20% of the newshole.
Last week’s scenes of death and destruction
were primarily conveyed to U.S. citizens on television news. The story
accounted for nearly one-half (46%) of the network news airtime studied last week;
it filled more than one-third (38%) on cable news.
In a year of dramatic newsmaking events
at home and abroad, the spring of 2011 has been marked by a series of violent
storms ravaging the Midwest and South. Indeed,
this makes the fifth time in the past seven weeks that destructive weather has
finished among the top five stories.
If weather led the news, politics played
a central role in the second and third biggest stories last week. The economy
was the No. 2 story, filling 12% of the newshole studied, and much of that
coverage focused on a Democratic victory in a special congressional election in
western New York widely viewed as a referendum on Republican budget priorities,
particularly the party’s plans for reforming Medicare.
The No. 3 story (9%) was the 2012
presidential election season, fueled in good measure by news about two former
GOP governors. One, Tim Pawlenty, made news by entering the race. Another,
Sarah Palin, created buzz by buying a home in Arizona and launching a bus
tour—heightening speculation that she too might join the Republican field. For
the week, Palin, with her knack for attracting press attention, finished as the
fourth biggest newsmaker.
After getting off to a somewhat slow news
start in 2011—particularly when compared to the presidential campaign four
years earlier—coverage of next year’s election has recently picked up significant
momentum. In the past six weeks, the campaign has filled 8% of the newshole, behind
only the death of bin Laden (17%) and the economy (10%).
The fourth and fifth biggest stories of
last week were about the Middle East. The
conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians was the No. 4 story, at 5% of
the newshole. And the continuing violence and unrest in the Arab world (No. 5) also
filled 5% of the newshole, as NATO forces intensified airstrikes in Libya.
A
Terrifying Twister
Television’s visceral power to convey
the magnitude and scope of a disaster like the one that struck Joplin was on full
display last week. While the story was the top news event in four of the five
media sectors studied by PEJ, the level of coverage online (12%) and in
newspapers (11%) was a fraction of what network and cable news devoted to the
storm—a sign that to at least some degree, the medium influences the message.
One day after the tornado struck, ABC
anchor Diane Sawyer began the May 23 newscast by walking through piles of
rubble in stricken Joplin, with the network’s special report labeled, “Direct
Hit: An American Tragedy in Joplin.”
Later in the broadcast, viewers saw a
chilling homemade video of the approaching twister as an unidentified voice
declared, “There it is, there it is. Oh gosh, that is a monster tornado.” The
sky then darkened ominously until the picture turned completely black amid the
haunting sounds of people screaming.
Like any disaster of this scale, the
event quickly spawned a number of storylines. One was the search for survivors
and the quick pivot toward eventual recovery. Speaking on the May 24 edition of
the NBC Today show, Joplin Mayor Mike Woolston, acknowledged that, “We don’t really
have an idea how many [people] are unaccounted for.” But he vowed that “as
difficult as it is, you just take one day at a time. And we will recover and we
will rebuild.”
The next day on CNN, John King was
documenting one family’s tragedy and growing frustration in trying to confirm
the death of their 12-year-old son.
“A neighbor told them he saw
the body and he told them their son is dead [and] that he stood over the body
and waited until an ambulance took it away,” King stated. “But they desperately
want to get to the morgue….Three days in a row, they have tried to get down in
the morgue, and they have been told they can't do that. So they tried to bring
us inside today, hoping that maybe some media attention would help them.”
And some stories, such as this Associated Press
account late in the week, focused on the disaster’s grim statistics: “The death toll from the massive tornado that
devastated Joplin, Mo., reached 132 Friday, a city spokeswoman said...All of
the numbers describing Sunday's storm are nothing short of numbing. The
tornado—an EF5 monster packing 200 mph winds—was the nation's deadliest single
twister in more than six decades. More than 900 people were injured.”
Last week’s coverage reinforced the sense that this has been a season
of unusually violent and headline-generating storms. During the week of April 25-May 1, a string
of tornadoes that reportedly killed more than 300 people, striking Alabama the
hardest, was the No. 1 story at 15% of the newshole.
Some media reports suggests that this spring’s particularly volatile
weather may be related to a number of factors—ranging from a strong La Nina
pattern to warm air lingering in the Arctic to a generally warming planet.
Politics:
Economic and Presidential
News of the economy was the No. 1 story
last week in radio (19%), and it was an election result that triggered much of
last week’s coverage. Democrat Kathy Hochul’s congressional win over Republican
Jane Corwin in a GOP leaning district in New York was interpreted largely
through the prism of the two party’s divergent plans for tackling the
deficit—particularly as it applied to Medicare.
“After their plan to privatize Medicare helped a Democrat win a vacant New
York congressional seat, House Republicans are vowing to prevent the 2012
election from becoming a referendum on the proposal,” stated a Bloomberg News
story posted on Google News. “Democrat
Kathy Hochul scored an upset in a traditionally Republican western New York
district May 24 after hammering opponent Jane Corwin for endorsing the Medicare
plan approved by almost all House Republicans…In a March 4-7 Bloomberg National
Poll, a Medicare voucher plan was opposed by 54 percent of respondents compared
with 40 percent supporting it.”
The 2012 presidential campaign also generated
the most attention last week in the two media sectors featuring the ideological
talk shows, cable news (15%) and radio (14%). Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, a man
some in the media have dubbed as charismatically challenged, made news by
announcing his entry into the GOP field on May 23. But by week’s end, signs
that Sarah Palin might be considering a run began attracting the political
press corps.
A May 26 Wall Street Journal story reported that
Palin “bought a roughly 8,000-square-foot home in North
Scottsdale, Ariz., for $1.695 million,” characterizing that as one of a “series
of recent moves” that “have amped up speculation…that she is preparing for a
White House bid.” The story also noted that Palin had recently rehired to two
aides and that a full length feature film focused on her career as Alaska
governor was close to completion.
As Palin proved last
week, the mere possibility that she might run for the White House is enough to
generate significant media interest.
The Middle East
The Israeli-Palestinian
situation fell by more than half from the attention received from the week
before, but it remained one of the top stories. The seemingly intractable
dispute accounted for 5% of the newshole from May 23-29, down from 11% the
previous week when coverage was driven by President Obama’s speech on the
subject. Last week, the big newsmaker was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu’s well-received speech to Congress, one that suggested some differences
between the U.S. and Israeli administrations on how to advance the peace
process.
The continuing fighting
in Libya was one of the main storylines in the ongoing Mideast turmoil coverage
(5%). But some of that news also focused on a significant event in Egypt, the
decision to charge former President Hosni Mubarak for killing protestors during
the upheaval in that country earlier in the year.
Newsmakers of the Week
President Obama was the
leading figure in the news from May 23-29, registering as a dominant newsmaker
in 6% of the week’s stories—a total that was down significantly from 11% the
previous week. (In order to register as a dominant newsmaker, a person must be
featured in at least 50% of a story.)
The next leading newsmakers
(at 2%) were Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ratko Mladic, the
former Serbian general arrested and charged last week in connection with war
crimes and atrocities.
The fourth leading
newsmaker was Sarah Palin (2%) followed closely at 1% by Tim Pawlenty and Jared
Loughner, the man charged in the Tucson shooting spree who was found
incompetent to stand trial last week.
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 1,000 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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