2004 Annual Report - Newspaper Content Analysis

What do Americans get from their newspapers?

In general, they get more institutional coverage, a more traditional mix of topics, more news of domestic affairs and government and also more anonymous sourcing than they do in other media. They also get a news agenda, on their front pages at least, that has changed less over the years than in other types of media.

To get a sense of newspaper content, the Project studied 16 newspapers from a range of circulation sizes over the course of a month. First, four randomly selected dates for each day of the week were selected - 28 days in all, spread out from January 8 to October 6 of 2003. Then U.S. daily newspapers were divided into four circulation categories and four papers from each group were selected at random, looking, when possible, for geographic diversity. The Project then examined, in detail, every article from three section fronts: the front page, metro page and lifestyle page. In all, 5,867 articles were studied.¹

How has the front-page agenda of newspapers changed over the years? We do have some sense of this.

An earlier study by the Project examined the front pages of major newspapers in 1977, 1987 and 1997.

A look at comparable papers in 2003 finds that the front-page agenda has continued a small but steady trend toward a broader definition of news.² Even in a year with war in Iraq and resulting American deaths, there was no sharp jump in international, military or government coverage.

Subjects of Front Page Newspaper Articles by Year

Percent of All Stories

Subject	1977	1987	1997	2003*
Government	33%	33%	30%	27%
Foreign Affairs	27	27	21	21
Military	1	3	*	3
Domestic Affairs	9	9	14	22
Entertainment/Celebrities	*	2	2	1
Lifestyle	4	5	6	8
Crime	9	6	10	4
Business/Commerce	8	6	5	5
Science	1	4	5	5
Accidents/Disasters	7	3	2	3
Other	2	3	4	1

*Analogous percentages are based on the largest circulation category in the 2003 study. Totals may not equal 100 due to rounding.

Government news makes up a somewhat smaller percentage of front-page articles than 20 years ago, and even smaller than in 1997. Foreign affairs, even with the war, made up a smaller number of the articles on the front page than in the 1970s during the cold war, but about the same as six years ago. The number of articles about crime continues to fall on the front page.

At the same time, the number of lifestyle articles keeps climbing, as do the number about other domestic matters besides government.

Topics in the News: Newspapers versus Network Nightly News

Percent of All Stories, 2003

Subject	Network Nightly News	Newspaper A1 Only
Government	16%	26%
Foreign Affairs	25	18
Defense/Military	3	3
Domestic Affairs	16	22
Crime	6	7
Business	12	6
Celebrities/Entertainment	2	1
Lifestyle	6	8
Science	2	3
Accidents/Disasters	10	4
Other	2	2

Totals may not equal 100 due to rounding.

How does the overall newspaper treatment of topics compare to other media studied?

On television, the closest news agenda comparison is newspaper front pages to the network nightly news. Even here, though, there are differences.³

Newspaper front pages devoted more attention to government news than did network nightly news (26 percent versus 16). The front pages devoted a little less attention to foreign affairs than the network nightly news, something that reflects the local nature of many smaller papers. It may also reflect the fact that much of the foreign coverage often falls on the inside pages of newspapers.

The newspapers devoted more front-page space to domestic issues, but less to economics and a good deal less to accidents and disasters.

Newspapers differ even more from network morning newscasts.

If people were to watch network morning shows instead of reading the front page of a morning newspaper, they would get a very different news agenda - only a third as many stories about government as in newspapers, 11 times as many about entertainment, more than twice as many crime stories and nearly triple the number of accident/disaster stories.

A fairer comparison between newspapers and morning shows (of which we studied the first hour each day, the time more oriented toward major news) might also include the metro and lifestyle sections of the newspaper.

Topics in the News: Newspapers versus Network Morning News

Percent of All Stories, 2003

Subject	Network Morning News	Newspaper A1 Only	Newspaper Total
Government	8%	26%	21%
Foreign Affairs	17	18	7
Defense/Military	4	3	1
Domestic Affairs	10	22	19
Crime	18	7	7
Business	2	6	4
Celebrities/Entertainment	11	1	8
Lifestyle	14	8	23
Science	2	3	2
Accidents/Disasters	11	4	3
Other	3	2	4

Totals may not equal 100 due to rounding.

Even here, there are big differences. Morning shows still had almost a third the number of stories about government, half as many about business, triple the number of accident/disaster stories and twice as many crime stories. The crime comparison is particularly notable, given that metro sections are often prime territory for crime and that crime is inherently local.

Morning shows also did twice as many foreign stories but half as many lifestyle stories as newspapers across these three section fronts.

When it comes to comparisons with cable, the Internet or news magazines, we must be cautious. While we studied a month of newspapers and network television, an analogous time period for news magazines is only four issues, and for cable news and Internet we studied extended periods over five days.

In general, the news agendas of newspaper front pages and Internet lead articles seem fairly similar and quite traditional. This may come as little surprise. The Internet at this point is largely a print medium, and the articles themselves are mostly wire copy or newspaper articles.

The agenda on cable television news seems different. It is extremely focused on foreign affairs and government, and not so concerned with domestic affairs.