The economy reclaimed its perch at the top of the news
agenda as the No. 1 story last week, largely driven by dramatically increasing
media attention to the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.
Overall economic coverage accounted for 22% of the
newshole from October 3-9, up from 14% the week before (when it was No. 2),
according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. The
protests largely aimed at Wall Street constituted the largest single thread in
that coverage, making up about one-third of the economic storyline. That
amounted to roughly 7% of the overall newshole, or nearly four times the amount
of protest coverage from the week before.
The debate over President Obama’s jobs bill was largely
responsible for the second biggest theme of economic coverage last week, the employment
situation, which accounted for an additional one-third of economic coverage.
Last week was also the biggest yet for 2012 campaign coverage,
at 18% of the newshole. That subject generated the most attention on cable TV,
accounting for 34% of the airtime studied. For the past month, the campaign, at 14% of
the newshole, has been the No. 2 story behind the economy—suggesting the media
have entered a new phase of the election cycle in which the presidential race
is a weekly priority.
Much of the coverage last week hung on the buildup to a
big announcement by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who—despite a growing
clamor for his candidacy—announced on October 4 that he would not run. Former
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin also announced last week that she would not run for president.
But the timing of that announcement—the same evening the world learned of Apple
CEO Steve Jobs’ death—may have tamped down media attention to her.
Among the other top stories last week was the October 5
death of Jobs, a man who for years had struggled publicly with pancreatic
cancer. The next morning, Jobs’ image was emblazoned on major newspapers from
The New York Times to The Wall Street Journal. Fueled largely by his death, news involving
Apple—which included the release of the latest iPhone version—was the No. 3
story, at 11% of the newshole.
At No. 4 last week was the dramatic acquittal of an
American woman, Amanda Knox, in an Italian court on murder charges. The story
was No. 1 on network television at 14% of the airtime studied, and accounted
for 7% of the overall coverage.
News about the winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize
represented the No. 5 story last week, at 4% of the newshole. Among the winners
featured in news reports were three women from Libya and Liberia who have
advocated peace and women’s rights in war zones.
Occupy Wall Street
Occupies the Media
Media attention to the Occupy Wall Street protests has
increased as the protests have gained momentum.
On September 17, demonstrators first set up camp in
Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, positioning themselves in the city’s
financial district. The leaderless group of activists, standing against
“corporate greed and social inequality,” generated negligible media coverage
during that first week.
But as the protests grew in size and intensity, as on
September 24 when many marched toward Union Square, the press began to take
more notice. On October 1, more than 700 demonstrators were arrested as they
marched across Brooklyn Bridge. During the week of September 26-October 2, the protests
got a little more media traction, accounting for 2% of the overall newshole.
Last week, similar protests emerged in major cities
around the country, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and elsewhere. It
was at this point that coverage began to spike, with the volume of coverage
increasing each day. On Monday, October 3, the protests amounted to 4% of the
newshole, and by Thursday, October 6, they accounted for 12%. By this time,
labor unions and Hollywood celebrities had joined forces with the crowds.
Early in the week, media outlets were still trying to
grasp what the protests were about. ABC’s Dan Harris took a tour of the
temporary village set up at the heart of the protests in New York, pointing out
an information booth, a media center, and food stands with free, donated goods.
“The one thing they don’t have—a clear focus,” he said during a World News
Tonight segment on October 3.
The Washington Post on October 4 described the protesters
as “having no single leader and no organized agenda.”
Among cable and radio talk programs, where attention to
the demonstrations was heavy, the tone of analysis depended on the politics of
the outlet or host.
Conservatives jeered the Occupy Wall Street protesters. Bill
O’Reilly during his October 3 program described their agenda in his own words:
“This is ‘I hate capitalism, I want this socialist nirvana, and I’m going to
disrupt everybody’s life to make my point.’ That’s wrong.”
Liberal MSNBC host Ed Schultz defended the protestors in
a live broadcast from Wall Street on October 5. “This just might be the
movement that starts a major change in this country,” he said.
Campaign: Christie
Bows Out Before He Was Ever In
Last week, presidential campaign coverage focused on a
handful of developments, including Chris Christie’s and Sarah Palin’s decisions
not to run, the problems afflicting Rick Perry’s campaign, and Herman Cain’s
moment in the spotlight.
Christie’s October 4 press conference from the New Jersey
State House in Trenton was the culmination of weeks of anticipation, and was
carried live on all the major cable news channels. It was, in the words of a
Wall Street Journal story, a decision that “will dash the hopes of the many
donors, operatives and leading figures in the Republican Party who have
clamored for him to run.” Christie stated his wishes to finish his work in New
Jersey as a major reason for his decision.
Meanwhile, Texas Governor Rick Perry found himself on the
defensive after an October 2 Washington Post story reported that a hunting camp
he had once leased had a racial slur painted on a rock. It was the latest in a
series of setbacks for the Perry campaign. According to CBS political analyst
John Dickerson the following day, “If the Perry campaign was running along
smoothly and always going well, this might’ve been the kind of thing he could
weather. But he’s been having a very rough spot dealing with a number of
difficult troubled issues.”
Christie and Perry were the leading figures in campaign
coverage last week, each registering as a dominant newsmaker in about one-fifth
of all the election stories. (To be considered a dominant newsmaker, a person
must be featured in at least 50% of a story.)
One candidate enjoying a boost in the polls and some
positive coverage in the news media was Herman Cain. An Oct. 6 New York Times
profile suggested that “this could be Mr. Cain’s moment. With
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey taking a pass and Gov. Rick Perry of Texas
struggling, the yearning for a candidate who can combine fiery conservative
populism with concrete policy proposals has led a growing section of Republican
voters to embrace, or at least take a hard look at, Mr. Cain.”
The Rest of the
Week’s News
Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ death at age 56 elicited
wall-to-wall news coverage on Thursday and Friday last week, including lengthy
obituaries chronicling his impact on the world of technology and consumer
behavior. And fittingly, his death generated the most attention, 21% of the newshole,
in the online news sector.
A 2005 Stanford
commencement address by Jobs in which he meditated on mortality circulated
online and on television. Mostly, the “visionary in the black turtleneck,” as
an October 5 CNN story put it, was revered in the press for his looming
influence and his big ideas. But some reports described his intensity and his
demanding nature.
After four years in prison, Amanda Knox was acquitted of
murder charges in Italy last week. The onetime American student living abroad
in Italy had been convicted and imprisoned on charges of participating in the
murder of her roommate. American television networks, especially broadcast, covered
the acquittal news, and played and replayed Knox’s emotional speech thanking
her family and supporters in the United States. The subject generated its
second highest level of coverage (10%) on cable news. 
Finally, the Nobel Peace Prize awardees accounted for the
No. 5 story last week, generating the most attention in the online and
broadcast news sectors (7%). A number of news reports paid special attention to
three women who shared the prize for their work on women’s rights: Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee of
Liberia and Tawakul Karman of Yemen.
Newsmakers of the
Week
From October 3-9, Barack Obama topped the list of
newsmakers, appearing prominently in 7% of stories studied last week, the same
as the week before.
At No. 2 was Amanda Knox, the 24-year-old American
acquitted of murder charges in Italy at 6%. The No. 3 newsmaker last week was
Steve Jobs, at 5%.
The No. 4 and No. 5 top newsmakers last week were two key
Republican presidential figures, both at 3%. One of them, Chris Christie,
announced that he would not enter the race. The other, Rick Perry, was the
subject of more controversial stories last week as the press continued to vet
the Texas governor and then chronicle his campaign’s stumbles.
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.
Jesse Holcomb of PEJ
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