Online
30% - Percentage of blogs linking to Ted Koppel’s Washington Post column
On November 14, the Washington Post published a column from former Nightline anchor Ted Koppel in which he criticized the opinionated hosts on MSNBC and Fox News. "The commercial success of both Fox News and MSNBC is a source of nonpartisan sadness for me," wrote Koppel, lamenting a media environment that "flaunts opinions as though they were facts."
As it turned out, Koppel's thoughts about the news inspired a major response from bloggers. Indeed, 30% of the links in blogs measured in PEJ's New Media Index from November 15-19, 2010 were to that column. That made it the week's No. 1 topic in the blogosphere.
While commentary in the blogosphere can often be polarized and partisan, many of those responding to Koppel's criticism
of the news universe offered more nuanced and varied responses.
A number of the bloggers agreed with Koppel.
"Koppel is spot-on correct in saying that news is becoming infotainment. But that was a trend that began back in the 50's and early 60's and Murrow was the first to speak out about it," jurassicpork at Brilliant at Breakfast pointed out.
"What is important for us as listeners or readers is to be able to distinguish what is fact and what is opinion. It is amazing how many of us can't," said Gary Fouse at fousesquak.
But not everyone thought Koppel was on the mark.
"Unfortunately, the pieces, the rebuttals, the debates, all seem to cast more heat than light, becoming part of the barrage of opinion all participants say they oppose," wrote knockmedown.
The other top five stories on blogs last week were largely Washington- and Washington Post-centric. No. 2 with 27% of links was another op-ed from the Washington Post by pollsters Douglas Schoen and Patrick Caddell arguing that Obama should not run for reelection. The third story (16%) was an op-ed by Department of Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano lauding the safety and efficiency of body scanners at airports. Next, (at 6%) was another Post op-ed, this one by the co-chairs of the Bipartisan Policy Center's Debt Reduction Task Force on ways to reduce the debt. And rounding out the top five was a Washington Post graphic comparing the Democratic and Republican tax plans (5%).
Emily Guskin of PEJ
Date Posted: November 24, 2010
240% - How much more coverage Scott McClellan’s book about George Bush generated than Bush’s own memoir
In the spring of 2008, when his former press secretary Scott McClellan released an unflattering tell-all book about George W. Bush’s Administration—What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception—it created a media firestorm.
McClellan’s allegation that the administration relied on propaganda to sell the war in Iraq and an admission that some of his briefings from the podium were “badly misguided” were among the nuggets that attracted attention. McClellan’s former colleagues called him a turncoat, and he hit the media circuit to defend himself. Attention to this controversial book filled 14.0% of the newshole from May 26-June 1, 2008, making it the second-biggest topic that week and the biggest book release story since PEJ began its News Coverage Index in January 2007.
But when Bush recently released his own memoir, Decision Points, it generated less than a third of the media attention of McClellan’s book. In the week of November 8-14, when the former president went on a high-profile media tour to discuss the memoir, the story filled 4.1% of the newshole. And one of the more publicized storylines that week was a reconciliation between Bush and rapper Kanye West, who apologized for saying that the president “doesn’t care about black people” in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Another look at the Bush Administration also generated more coverage than Decision Points. Bush’s former CIA Director George Tenet wrote At the Center of the Storm, which detailed the decision to invade Iraq in 2001. In the book, Tenet claimed he was unfairly scapegoated for the administration’s miscalculation about WMD in Iraq. Tenet’s was the second-biggest book release story since 2007, filling 5.1% of the newshole from April 29-May 4, 2007.
Rounding out the top-five book stories were Bob Woodward’s Obama’s Wars, which described the first year of the Obama Administration, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan’s memoir Age of Turbulence. Woodward’s book was received with both criticism and acclaim; it filled 2.9% the week of its debut, September 20-26, 2010. Greenspan’s look at his role in the Federal Reserve and his relationships with former presidents captured 1.4% of the newshole from September 16-21, 2007.
Tricia Sartor and Dana Page of PEJ
Date Posted: November 18, 2010
November 16, 2010
By Bill Kovach and Tom  Rosenstiel
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Amid the hand-wringing over the death of "true journalism" in the Internet Age—the din of bloggers, the echo chamber of Twitter, the predominance of Wikipedia—veteran journalists and media critics Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel have written a pragmatic, serious-minded guide to navigating the twenty-first century media terrain.
Yes, old authorities are being dismantled, new ones created, and the very nature of knowledge has changed. But seeking the truth remains the purpose of journalism—and the object for those who consume it. How do we discern what is reliable? How do we determine which facts (or whose opinions) to trust?
Blur provides a road map, or more specifically, reveals the craft that has been used in newsrooms by the very best journalists for getting at the truth. In an age when the line between citizen and journalist is becoming increasingly unclear, Blur is a crucial guide for those who want to know what's true.
Ways of Skeptical Knowing—Six Essential Tools for Interpreting the News
1. What kind of content am I encountering?
2. Is the information complete? If not, what's missing?
3. Who or what are the sources and why should I believe them?
4. What evidence is presented and how was it tested or vetted?
5. What might be an alternative explanation or understanding?
6. Am I learning what I need?
Reviews
"If I had $1 million I would buy a copy of this book for every high school senior in America. If I had $2 million, I would use the second million to offer cash incentives for every one of those high school seniors to read what might be the most important book they will read in their lives--the one volume that will help them evaluate everything else they read until they die."
-David M. Shribman, Executive Editor, Pittsburgh Post Gazette
"Two trailblazing newspapermen make a powerful case that with information reaching us at warp speed, Americans can--and must--learn the tough-minded skepticism that drove the country's greatest journalists. Kovach and Rosenstiel's riveting, terse book shows how citizens can gauge fact from fiction, discern neutral sources from interested parties, and parse the news as American journalism goes through its upheaval"
-Dean Baquet, Washington Bureau Chief, New York Times
"Blur is an impassioned and practical brief for what its authors call 'verification'--the effort by journalists and others who publicly exchange information about public affairs to examine evidence and test the truth value of the assertions they and others are making. It argues persuasively for the virtues of traditional journalism without in any way resisting the sweeping changes the Internet has brought to the profession. It's hard to imagine a more urgently necessary task, for journalism and for democratic societies, than the one Kovach and Rosenstiel have taken on."
-Nicholas Lemann, Dean, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
How to Order
Order from Amazon
Order from Barnes and Noble
6th - Rank of the cargo bomb plot among most-covered U.S. terror cases since 2007
The Yemen terror plot to detonate explosive devices aboard planes headed for the U.S. has generated significant coverage since the attack was foiled on October 29. The episode, involving bombs experts say may have been within hours of exploding over the eastern U.S., filled 5.4% of the newshole the week of October 25-31. That made it the sixth most-covered terror plot involving the U.S. since PEJ began its News Coverage Index in January 2007.
Attention to the story also remained high the week of November 1-7 (5%) as more details of the failed attack emerged.
But that recent near miss attracted only a fraction of the media coverage of the No. 1 terror plot story since January 2007. On December 25, 2009, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the so-called Christmas Day bomber, attempted to detonate explosives sewn into his underwear on a plane bound for Detroit. But a foul smell and smoke alerted crew members and passengers who subdued Abdulmutallab. That story filled 23.3% of the newshole the week of December 28-Janaury 3, 2010.
The No. 2 terror story occurred when Pakistani American Faisal Shahzad tried but failed to detonate an SUV in crowded Times Square on May 1, 2010. That episode filled 21% of the newshole the week of May 3-9, 2010.
The third-biggest story was the case of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who allegedly opened fire at the Fort Hood Army post, killing 13 people and wounding 30 others on November 5, 2009. That massacre filled 14.9% of the newshole the week of November 2-8, 2009.
That was followed, in the No. 4 slot, by the saga of Najibullah Zazi, the Afghan immigrant planning to attack New York’s subway system, which filled 7.7% from September 21-27, 2009. And the fifth-biggest terror plot story was the arrest of six men who were planning an assault on the Fort Dix army base in New Jersey on May 8, 2007. From May 6-11, 2007, that story filled 6.5% of the newshole.
Tricia Sartor of PEJ
Note: This analysis examined weeks of coverage when an alleged plot was first revealed and made news. It does not include coverage of trials or major legal developments concerning terror suspects. Date Posted: November 11, 2010
November 5, 2010
In today’s news landscape, both mainstream and new media sources shape the narrative. A new PEJ study finds that no single unified message reverberated throughout the media universe in the wake of the November 2 voting and what one learned depended largely on where one got the news. How did the post election-day narrative differ from the front pages to the television studies and from bloggers to Twitterers?
Parsing Election Day Media - How the Midterms Message Varied by Platform
No. 2 - Rank of Christine O’Donnell among 2010 election newsmakers
With the U.S. economy and the role of government emerging as crucial issues in the midterm elections, it’s not surprising that President Obama has been the top newsmaker in the 2010 election coverage to date. According to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, Obama and his administration led in 343 election stories from January 1-October 31, 2010. (To be a lead newsmaker, someone must be featured in at least 50% of a story.)
But the No. 2 campaign newsmaker rose from obscurity to become a household name in a matter of weeks, if not days. Christine O’Donnell, the tea party-backed candidate who won a stunning victory in Delaware’s GOP senate primary, dominated 160 election stories examined by PEJ. O’Donnell’s upset over Congressman Mike Castle—as well as her penchant for controversial statements (some of them well in the past) about everything from dabbling in witchcraft to the separation of church and state—has made her a media favorite.
Indeed, four of the 10 top election newsmakers are representatives of the tea party movement, which has emerged as a key element in the election narrative. Kentucky GOP senate candidate Rand Paul ranked 4th (at 88 stories) and Nevada Republican Sharron Angle, who has mounted a very stiff challenge to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, ranked 6th (at 80 stories). (Reid is the No. 7 newsmaker, showing up prominently in 74 election stories). And Carl Paladino, the tea party’s GOP candidate for New York governor, is tied for ninth at 52 stories.
Two of the other top headline generators are involved in one of the more high profile races in the country—the hotly contested gubernatorial contest in California. Meg Whitman, the Republican candidate who has spent well over $100 million of her own money and who was ensnared in a controversy over an undocumented worker in her home, is the No. 3 newsmaker (90 stories.) Her opponent—veteran politician and former presidential candidate Jerry Brown who made news when someone attached to his campaign referred to Whitman in crude terms—finished in the tenth spot (49 stories.)
Pennsylvania’s Joe Sestak, who defeated party-switching incumbent Arlen Specter in the Democratic senate primary and is in a tough fight against Republican Pat Toomey, is the No. 5 newsmaker, at 85 stories.
*Includes Obama and Obama Administration as a newsmaker
Date Posted: November 2, 2010
5% - Percentage of technology stories—from June 2009 to July 2010—related to Iran’s “Twitter Revolution”
Typically, technology subjects do not get a great deal of attention in the mainstream press, accounting for about 2% of the overall coverage examined by PEJ from June 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010. But as a recent report on tech coverage illustrates, there are some technology-related storylines that do trigger media interest.
The No. 1 technology subject in the 13-month period of the study focused on a potentially dangerous aspect of the digital revolution. The dangers of texting while driving accounted for 8% of all the technology stories examined.
The second- and fourth-biggest stories involved the release of new and widely publicized Apple gadgets. Attention to the launches of the iPhone 3GS in June 2009 (6%) and the iPad4 (5%) in June 2010, help demonstrate the interest in Apple’s products. Apple proved to be the most-covered tech company in the mainstream press, generating more attention than Google, Twitter and Facebook.
At the same time, two of biggest technology-related stories involved international issues in which access to information played a central role. The first was the protests that followed the disputed June 2009 elections in Iran—when citizens used Twitter and other social media to spread information about what was happening in the country and to rally support for the protestors. Indeed, the “Twitter Revolution” in Iran accounted 5% of technology stories, making it the No. 3 technology storyline from June 1, 2009-June 31, 2010.
The second overseas event to make the top-five list was Google’s decision to stop censoring its Chinese search engine after Gmail accounts of Chinese activists were hacked (4% of technology stories). In January 2010 the company pulled out from China and directed all Chinese users from google.cn to Google Hong Kong, google.com.hk. In July 2010 Google renewed its license with China and it is once again operating without any censorship.
To learn more read the complete report.
Or to test your knowledge about technology and the news, take PEJ’s new technology quiz.
Date Posted: October 6, 2010
4 - Number of weeks “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” has been a top-ten story since 2007
On September 21, Senate Democrats failed to break a Republican-led filibuster that blocked efforts to repeal the controversial “Don't Ask, Don’ Tell” (DADT) law—thus ending, at least temporarily, attempts to allow openly gay men and lesbians to serve in the U.S. military. The maneuvering over the bill and the reaction to its defeat—as well as a speech by pop icon Lady Gaga in support of repealing DADT—filled 4% of the media newshole the week of September 20-26. That made it the third-biggest story in the mainstream media that week.
While last week saw a spike in coverage, gay issues tend to generate only modest attention in the mainstream press. Indeed, coverage of gay rights-related topics has never filled more than 5% of the weekly media’s newshole since PEJ began tracking news coverage in January 2007.
But on the occasions when they do generate coverage, DADT has often been at the center of the narrative. Since 2007, three of the biggest weeks for gay issues—filling at least 3% of the newshole—revolved around the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
The first time that occurred was March 11-16, 2007, (3% of the newshole) when then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace told a Chicago newspaper that he felt homosexuality was “immoral.” That sparked a debate about DADT and Pace quickly expressed regret over the remarks.
Another significant week of coverage followed President Obama’s endorsement of a repeal of DADT in his January 2010 State of the Union Speech. The issue accounted for 4% of the newshole the week of February 1-7, 2010, when Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen both testified in favor of repealing DADT before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The other major gay rights storyline in the past several years has focused on the battle over same-sex marriage in California.
The first such week was May 12-18, 2008, when the California Supreme Court struck down the ban on same-sex marriages and the story filled 3% of the weekly newshole.
Nearly a year later, May 25-31, 2009, the subject accounted for 5% of the newshole when the California Supreme Court upheld a prohibition against gay marriage following the passage of Proposition 8, which banned such unions. More recently (August 2-8, 2010), the subject filled 5% of the newshole when a federal judge in California ruled that the ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, but a stay was granted pending appeal.
Tricia Sartor of PEJ
Date Posted: September 29, 2010
September 27, 2010
The mainstream media offer the American public a divided view of how information technology influences society, according to a new PEJ study. Messages such as technology making life easier often vie with concerns about privacy and safety. How do the media portray technology? Which companies get the most coverage? Do social media and blogs treat the subject differently than traditional media? A year-long study of technology coverage answers these and other questions.
When Technology Makes Headlines
1 - Number of weeks the economy has not been one of the top three news stories in 2010
Coverage of the economy exploded in the fall of 2008 when the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy helped trigger a crisis in the financial sector. In the next seven months (September 2008 – March 2009), the economy filled a whopping 30% of the newshole, as the country worried about a possible second Great Depression.
And even as the level of coverage has diminished dramatically since that peak period, the state of the battered economy consistently continues to generate substantial attention.
For the week of September 13-19, for example, news about the economy accounted for 16% of the newshole, making it the No. 2 story behind the 2010 elections. And thus far in 2010, the economy has been the No. 1 story in the mainstream media, filling 12% of the newshole studied, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism’s News Coverage Index. The next biggest story, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, accounts for 9%.
While the coverage has decreased, the story of the troubled U.S. economy has real staying power. The most convincing evidence is the fact that in 2010 to date, there has been only one week in which the economic crisis has not been among the top-three news stories in a given week. And in that week, from July 26-August 1, it registered as the No. 4 story, at 10%.
Several key economic storylines have driven the coverage this year.
With the unemployment rate still near 10%, the tough job market has been the biggest economic storyline in 2010. Fully 18% of the economy newshole has focused on unemployment numbers, jobless benefits and efforts to create jobs—such as President Obama’s “green jobs” initiative.
Following unemployment was coverage of efforts to reform Wall Street (12%), which focused on the bill that was signed into law in July. Attention to the credit and banking markets, such as an overview of banking business and new credit card rules, also filled 12%.
Other economic storylines that generated significant news include the global economic crisis, including the problems facing Greece and the EU, and how the nation’s financial troubles are affecting state and local governments (both at 7%).
Tricia Sartor of PEJ
Date Posted: September 23, 2010
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