OnlineYouTube & NewsNews is becoming a major part of what Americans watch on YouTube. In the last 15 months, a third of the most searched terms on the video sharing site were news related. A new study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism explores the character of news on YouTube. From “Crushing New Taxes” to “a step in the right direction,” social media leapt into action following the Supreme Court ruling last Thursday which let the Affordable Care Act stand – including the controversial element requiring all individuals to obtain health insurance by 2014.
The response was passionate, and at first heavily tilted toward those in favor of the ruling, according to a special report by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. But by the end of the weekend, the tenor of the conversation had changed as those in opposition became more vocal. This sentiment matches closely the divided public opinion over the health care ruling. 
Each of the three platforms studied—Twitter, Facebook and blogs—came down in somewhat different places. On Twitter, where the conversation was by far the heaviest of the three platforms (some 2.1 million statements in all), users were evenly split between those who favored the ruling and those who opposed it (18% of the conversation voiced support for the ruling while 17% voiced opposition). On Facebook, dissenters slightly edged out those in favor (29% opposed and 25% in favor). And in blogs, opposition to the ruling outweighed support by nearly two-to-one (29% opposed versus 15% in favor). These are some the findings of PEJ’s study of 2,133,392 statements on Twitter, 82,770 on Facebook and 20,459 on blogs from the time the ruling was announced, 10:15 a.m. Thursday June 28, through Sunday, July 1. Read the full methodology. Focus is on Decision Rather than Political Implications On all three platforms the conversation focused much more on views about the ruling itself than about what it might mean for either of the presidential candidates. The gap was more than three-to-one on Twitter, five-to-one in blogs and more than five-to-one on Facebook. 
Among those who did discuss the presidential implications, views were statistically evenly split on which candidate it would help or hurt. On Twitter, 5% of the conversation suggested it would help Obama or hurt Romney while 7% expressed the opposite. On Facebook the statements broke out to be 4% help Obama/hurt Romney and 6% help Romney/hurt Obama. On blogs, it was 5% of the statements for each. 
A handful of other aspects of the ruling gained traction in social media. Views about the Supreme Court in general accounted for 8% of the posts on Twitter and 10% of the posts on Facebook. (This did not emerge as a clear frame on blogs.) Most of the comments centered on Justice Roberts, who sided with the liberal justices for the 5-4 ruling upholding the law and demonstrated again the split in Americans’ views. On Twitter, 3% of the statements praised the Supreme Court or Roberts while 5% criticized it. On Facebook the split was 6% commending and 4% critical. 
Another area of conversation centered on the media’s coverage of the ruling – in this case largely criticizing CNN and Fox which erroneously announced that the Court had struck down the law. The Mix of Views Emerge Over Time The tenor of the conversation changed over the four days following the ruling. In the initial hours that followed, those cheering the ruling came out strong but dissenters picked up steam on Friday and through the weekend, and in the end outweighed supporters in two of the three social media platforms. 
The greatest shift occurred on Twitter. Supporters accounted for nearly a quarter (23%) of the conversation on Thursday, but then dropped in half on Friday to 12% and then to 10% on Saturday before inching back up on Sunday. Dissenting views rose steadily through Saturday and then leveled off. 
On the public Facebook feeds, statements in support of the ruling had a slight edge on Thursday (24% of the conversation versus 21% in opposition). But those angry with the ruling weighed in much more heavily on Friday, accounting for 32% of the statements, and then continued to outweigh supporting views over the weekend. 
Bloggers maintained the most consistent tone over the four days following the ruling, and that tone was one of opposition to the Court’s action. Across all four days, statements expressing disagreement with the Court’s ruling outweighed those in favor of it by two-to-one. After helping define the Obama presidency for almost a year, health care reform largely disappeared as a subject in the American news media as it wended its way through the legal system to the Supreme Court. When it was a major story, however, most of the coverage focused on the politics of the bill rather than the substance of the legislation. And the language and framing of the issue favored by the bill’s Republican critics was far more prevalent in the news coverage than the language and framing favored by Democrats supporting the bill, according to research conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. Health care reached its heights as a news story in the summer of 2009 and early 2010, during the rise of the tea party and the battles in the House and Senate over passage of the legislation. In the third quarter of 2009, with passions fueled by angry town hall meetings, coverage of the health care debate filled 18% of the newshole, according to PEJ’s News Coverage Index, making it the No. 1 story in the news. That number fell slightly but remained high in the last quarter of 2009 (13%) and the first quarter of 2010 (14%). 
But once the battle over health care shifted to the courts, largely in federal appeals court decisions, the subject received far less attention. From April 2010 through December 2011, the subject never exceeded 2% of the overall newshole in any three months period. That changed, some, in the first three months of 2012, with coverage rising to 5% of the newshole. The week of February 6-12, the story first made a comeback (9% of the newshole) as the debate over whether religious institutions should be forced to cover contraception in their health insurance plans emerged as a major issue. Four weeks later, Rush Limbaugh’s controversial comments about a Georgetown law student helped drive coverage (10%) the week of March 5-11. At its peak, in 2009 and early 2010, the issue was also more of a topic in the opinion part of the media culture, on radio and cable TV talk shows, than elsewhere. But it wasn’t always Obama’s partisan opponents doing the talking, but often people from within the liberal camp who felt the law didn’t go far enough. During that period, liberal talk show hosts devoted more time to the issue than conservative hosts. 
That fits with another finding in an analysis of the press coverage, particularly during the formative stages from June 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010. Most of the coverage of the health care reform bill focused on the politics as opposed to reporting on what the bill would do or the state of health care. Fully 49% of the coverage focused on politics and strategy, as well as the legislative process. Less than a quarter of the coverage (23%) outlined what the various proposals would do, and 9% of the coverage focused on the state of the health care system in the U.S. 
Which side got the better of this highly politically oriented coverage? An analysis by PEJ of the language used in the media (PEJ research) reveals that opponents of the reform won the so-called “messaging war” in the coverage. Terms that were closely associated with opposition arguments, such as “government run,” were far more present in media reports than terms associated with arguments supporting the bill, such as “pre-existing conditions.” To conduct the analysis, researchers examined and identified three of the most common concepts being pushed by opponents of the bill and the three concepts being promoted by supporters and then examined the news coverage for the presence of those concepts and language. The concepts used by opponents were nearly twice as common as those used by supporters. See the full methodology here. 
How important is health care to Obama’s presidency? Of all the stories in which Obama has been a lead newsmaker (meaning at least 50% of the story referenced him), the health care debate is the No. 3 topic during his first year in office. Fully 13% of these stories were about health care, substantially more than about the war in Afghanistan. Only the economy (the subject of 18% of Obama stories) and stories that focus directly on the operations of the Administration were larger. 
No. 5 - Ranking of the European financial crisis among top stories in the past year With worries mounting over Greece’s possible exit from the European Union, attention to the economic problems in the euro zone accounted for 5% of the newshole last week. That level of attention made Europe’s financial woes the No. 3 story last week and represented the most weekly coverage generated by that subject since December 5-11, 2011. The impact of Europe’s financial crisis has been felt in the U.S., affecting the stock market and raising economic fears that some analysts believe could impact the 2012 presidential election. But how much coverage has it received in the U.S. media? An examination by PEJ largely finds modest coverage, with a few notable spikes, in the past year. From June 1, 2011-May 20, 2012, the European economic crisis has accounted for 2% of the newshole in U.S. media, making it the No. 5 story overall in that period—trailing the presidential election (18%), U.S. economic woes (16%), the unrest in the Middle East (6%) and the war in Afghanistan (3%). In 6 of the 12 months studied, coverage of the euro zone woes accounted for less than 2% of the newshole. But in May 2012, the story began to pick up steam (4% of the newshole) as new anti-austerity leaders gained control of governments in France and Greece. The other two months in the past year when attention to the economic problems in Europe accounted for at least 4% of the newshole were November (7%) and December (4%) 2011. This rise in coverage followed the euro zone leaders’ decision on October 26 to restructure Greece’s debt to try and ensure the Greek crisis didn’t spread to the rest of the European Union. But this deal sparked worries about the collapse of the Greek government, led to strict austerity measures for Greek citizens and fostered continued unsteadiness in world financial markets. These concerns kept the euro zone in the news through the beginning of 2012. Coverage trailed off in the beginning of the year, however, not accounting for more than 2% of the newshole in any month until May. Tricia Sartor of PEJ
Users of Twitter were the most doubtful, as almost four times as much of the overall conversation from May 14-20 (22%) consisted of claims that Facebook stock was overhyped than it was worth buying (6%). Blogs and Facebook also included more doubt than optimism, although by smaller margins. Even on Facebook, though, the gap was nearly two-to-one. Beyond the straight news accounts regarding the facts of the IPO (which made up roughly a quarter of the conversation across all platforms), the largest topic differed by social media outlet. On Twitter, fully 22% of the conversation consisted of suggestions that the value of Facebook was overhyped or overpriced. Many tweets warned against buying stock while others declared that the results of the first day, where the closing share price of $38.23 was just slightly above the initial offering value of $38, meant that the company’s debut had failed.
In the blogosphere, a quarter of the conversation (25%) focused on Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s decision to relinquish his U.S. citizenship just prior to the IPO. Bloggers connected Saverin’s move with larger political and economic debates. Some argued he was dodging his U.S. tax obligations while others claimed his decision demonstrated the dangers of high taxes and regulation. On Facebook itself, more than a third (34%) of the conversation revolved around Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Some discussed Zuckerberg’s growing financial worth, while many issued well-wishes to him on his May 14 birthday and after learning of his May 19 wedding to Priscilla Chan. On all three platforms, the tone and focus on the conversations changed little from before and after the May 18 IPO. The exception was the increase in attention paid to Zuckerberg when news of his wedding became public the day following the historic IPO.
Facebook: A Profile of its 'Friends' What Facebook and Twitter Mean for News PEJ New Media Index: The Facebook Fascination on Social Media (Jan. 2012) Why Facebook Users Receive More Than They Give (Feb. 2012) Social Networking Sites and Our Lives (June 2011) Privacy Management on Social Media Sites (Feb. 2012)
43%--Amount of coverage of the anniversary of bin Laden's death devoted to its impact on U.S. politics Last week marked the anniversary of the U.S. raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden and stories about the al Qaeda leader's death accounted for 12.5% of the newshole from April 30-May 6, 2012. While that is a significant amount of attention, it represents a fraction of the coverage (69%) that bin Laden's death received in the week of May 2-8, 2011. And one year after bin Laden's demise, in the midst of a presidential campaign season, what was the main theme of last week's coverage? According to a PEJ analysis, the largest component of bin Laden coverage (43%) was political, with much of it focusing on the event's connection to the 2012 election. The political angle to the story flared up when President Obama released an ad questioning whether his presumptive Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, would have ordered the raid. That triggered criticism from Republicans who argued that Obama was politicizing bin Laden's death to help benefit his campaign. Perhaps not surprisingly, that political angle to the bin Laden anniversary was most prominent in the two media sectors that include ideological talk shows--radio news, where it filled 80% of the airtime studied, and cable news, where it accounted for 76%. After politics, there was a significant drop off to the next biggest themes in last week's overall coverage--straight news accounts (18%) and the impact of bin Laden's death on the war on terror (17%). The online sector devoted the highest percentage of coverage by far (46%) to straight news accounts. And television network newscasts led in coverage of the broader war on terror themes (36%), followed by newspapers, at 27%. Newspapers had the least amount of overall bin Laden coverage of any media sector (5.2%) and 38% of it was about politics. That is a substantial amount, but far less than what viewers saw and heard on cable and radio. Monica Anderson of PEJ
14% - newshole devoted to the Trayvon Martin case in the last five weeks While it took almost three weeks for the mainstream press to begin covering the February 26 shooting of Trayvon Martin, it has become a major story since then. Indeed, in the five-weeks from March 19-April 22, coverage of the racially charged case filled 14% of the overall newshole. In that period, only one other story, the 2012 presidential campaign (at 18%), received more media attention. And in the five years that PEJ has been tracking news coverage, the Trayvon Martin case has generated the most sustained attention of any story with a strong racial component. The case first gained attention in the mainstream press the week of March 19-25—shortly after the release of 911 audio tapes of alleged shooter George Zimmerman calling police, who suggested that he not follow Martin. That week, it was the No. 1 story, filling 19% of the newshole. It accounted for 18% the following week, March 26-April 1, and reached 17% from April 9-15 when Zimmer was charged with second degree murder. In the weeks of April 2-8 and 16-22, coverage trailed off, but still registered at 7%. No other race related-story, even those that generated initial bursts of intense coverage, has displayed the media staying power of the Trayvon Martin case. When radio host Don Imus triggered a major controversy and lost his job after referring to the Rutgers women’s basketball team as “nappy headed hos,” the story filled 26% of the week of April 8-13, 2007. One week later, coverage plunged to just 1% of the newshole.
Race was a crucial factor in a major story during the 2008 presidential campaign when videos showed Barack Obama’s The story reignited the week of April 28-May 4, 2008, (18%) when Wright made a series of high-profile media appearances forcing Obama to speak out more forcefully against his pastor and eventually resign from the church. But coverage quickly faded again, to just 1%, the following week. Another story with major racial overtones surfaced in the summer of 2010 when Department of Agriculture employee Shirley Sherrod was forced to resign after a misleadingly edited video clip surfaced in which she appeared to be making racially controversial comments. The story accounted for 14% of the newshole the week of July 19-25, 2010. One week later, coverage fell to 2% and then quickly vanished. The arrest of African-American Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates at his Cambridge Massachusetts home by a police officer triggered significant attention in the summer of 2009. The saga filled 12% the week of July 20-26, 2009 following Obama’s comment that the police acted “stupidly” in the case. One week later, July 27-August 2, the story accounted for 8% as Obama held the much-publicized “beer summit” at the White House. After that, the story dropped off the media radar. Tricia Sartor of PEJ How the Media Covered the 2012 Primary CampaignAs the 2012 presidential race shifts from the GOP primary
0.3% - Amount of coverage devoted to the situation in Egypt last month Last week, representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood—which has emerged as a potent political force in post-Mubarak Egypt—visited the U.S. for the first time and met with White House officials. Despite the significance of the trip and the Brotherhood’s role in strategically crucial Egypt, that subject accounted for less than 1% of the newshole from April 2-8, 2012, according to PEJ’s News Coverage Index. It has now been over a year since protests and violence swept across the Middle East and ushered in what became widely known as the Arab Spring. This wave of unrest dominated news coverage and propelled international stories to the forefront of the U.S. news agenda. In February and March 2011, the upheaval in the region was the No. 1 story in the media. In April 2011, it was No. 2, behind only the U.S. economy. But even as the aftermath of the uprisings continue to play out with violence and political turmoil, attention to the Arab Spring has dramatically declined and is now virtually off the media radar screen. That is particularly true in the two countries—Egypt and Libya—that had generated the most attention in the U.S. media. Last year, Egypt’s coverage peaked in February 2011 after longtime president Hosni Mubarak stepped down amid massive protests. In that month, attention to that country accounted for 22% of the newshole. Since that high point, coverage of Egypt has dropped dramatically, never accounting for more than 1% in a given month, except for November 2011, when coverage climbed to 4% as the nation held its first democratic elections. A very similar trend in coverage occurred with Libya. In March 2011, coverage of the conflict in that nation accounted for 27% of the newshole, with most of the attention focused on the U.S. and NATO’s decision to enter the conflict. The months following saw the Libyan conflict fade steadily from the mainstream news agenda, producing sporadic spikes in coverage in August 2011 when Muammar Gaddafi’s compound was seized (8%), and in October 2011 when Gaddafi was captured and killed by rebel forces (5%). Since November 2011, coverage of the Libyan conflict, which still persists, has accounted for less than 1% of the newshole every month. The current focus of attention in the Mideast is Syria, where violence between government forces and their opponents is reported to have claimed about 9,000 lives. But unlike Egypt and Libya, Syria’s uprising has never dominated news coverage and has, in fact, generated consistently modest to negligible attention. Since PEJ began monitoring the Syrian conflict in March 2011, coverage has exceeded 3% of the newshole in only one month. That was February 2012 (7% of the newshole) when two prominent journalists were killed in Syria, and U.S. officials decided to close its Syrian embassy. Monica Anderson of PEJ Most adults follow local news closely, relying on local newspapers and other sourcesNearly three quarters (72%) of adults are quite attached to following local news and information, and local newspapers are by far the source they rely on for much of the local information they need. In fact, local news enthusiasts are substantially more wedded to their local newspapers than others. They are much more likely than others to say that if their local newspaper vanished, it would have a major impact on their ability to get the local information they want. This is especially true of local news followers age 40 and older, who differ from younger local news enthusiasts in some key ways. One-third of local news enthusiasts (32%) say it would have a major impact on them if their local newspaper no longer existed, compared with just 19% of those less interested in local news. Most likely to report a major impact if their newspaper disappeared are local news followers age 40 and older (35%), though even among younger local news followers 26% say losing the local paper would have a major impact on them. In contrast, just 19% of adults who do not follow local news closely say they would feel a major impact and fully half (51%) say they would feel no impact at all from the loss of their local paper. Only 34% of local news enthusiasts feel this way. These local news and information consumers stand out from other adults in several respects related to community attachment, general interest in all types of news, use of sources for local news and information, and the particular topics of interest to them on the local scene. As a whole, local news enthusiasts do not stand out from other adults in their use of technology or in the way they use technology to participate in local affairs, such as sending around links or posting comments on websites. However, among local news enthusiasts there are considerable differences in technology use across generations. These are among the main findings in a nationally representative phone survey of 2,251 adults by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism and Internet & American Life Project, produced in association with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. It focused on the ways people get information and news about 16 different topics, ranging from breaking news to weather to crime to schools information. The survey was administered from January 12-25, 2011 on landline and cell phones. It has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. And here are some of the main findings, as they apply to the group who identified themselves as local news enthusiasts:Local news enthusiasts are more connected to their communityAdults who follow local news closely are fairly diverse in their age, though they skew older, more female, and more African-American as a group when compared with adults who do not follow local news as closely. They are also more likely to describe themselves as politically conservative and to attend religious services on a weekly basis when compared with those who are not consistent local news consumers. Local news consumers are more connected to their communities than others, both in length of time in the community and in their connection with neighbors, and more likely to think they can improve their communities. Roughly three in 10 have lived in their community 20 years or longer (32% vs. 20% of others), and thus not surprisingly are more likely to know all of their neighbors. This is driven largely by local news enthusiasts age 40 and older. As a whole, local news enthusiasts are also slightly more likely than other adults to believe they can have a big impact on making their community a better place to live. Local news enthusiasts' news consumption habits differ from other adultsIn addition to local news, this group is more actively engaged than others in following news in general, and international and national news specifically. Sixty-three percent enjoy keeping up with news "a lot" compared with 35% of other adults. This is especially true of older local news enthusiasts (age 40 and older), 72% of whom say they enjoy keeping up with new "a lot." Six in 10 local news followers (63%) also follow international news closely most of the time regardless of whether something is happening or not and 78% follow national news this closely. In comparison, 39% of other adults follow international news this closely and 46% follow national news this closely. When it comes to sources of local news and information, 35% of local news enthusiasts say that local news sources give them all of the information that matters to them, 10 percentage points higher than those less interested in local news. They also use more sources of local news and information per week than others (mean of 3.77 vs. 2.84). The youngest local news enthusiasts, those age 18-39, use the greatest number of local news sources weekly, with a mean of 4.38. Local news enthusiasts are interested in many local topics. This group is more likely than other adults to follow 12 out of 16 local news topics asked about - including weather, breaking news, politics, crime and schools/education. In many cases, interest in particular topics is driven by older local news enthusiasts (weather, politics, crime, traffic, taxes, and local government activity, social services and zoning), while interest in other topics lies mainly with younger local news followers (job openings, restaurants). For 14 of these 16 topics, the local newspaper is local news enthusiasts' preferred source of information (or tied at the top with another source). Overall, local television news is the preferred source for just four topics, while the internet is preferred for just three of the 16 asked about. While this seems to be positive news for newspapers, in many cases the reliance on newspapers is heaviest among older local news enthusiasts, while younger local news followers rely more heavily on other sources.
72% of Americans Follow Local News Closely (PDF) INTERACTIVE: How People Learn about their Local Community DOWNLOAD PDF: How People Learn about their Local Community Where People Get Information about Restaurants and Local Businesses Survey: Mobile News & Paying Online |
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Facebook’s May 18 IPO—which set the market value of the social-networking giant at $105 billion—sparked significant discussion on Twitter, blogs and Facebook itself, with more expressions of skepticism than confidence about the stock's value, according to a report by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.
