Newspapers
66% - Drop in U.S. news coverage of the World Cup from Week 1 to Week 4
The 2010 World Cup competition in South Africa has generated a moderate amount of news coverage in the U.S. media, filling 2.1% of the newshole in the period from June 7-July 4. That makes it the sixth-biggest story in the mainstream American press in that period. (The coverage studied by PEJ does not include newspaper sports sections or sports-oriented broadcasts.)
But as the World Cup has gone on—and after the U.S. team was eliminated by Ghana on June 26—that coverage has diminished dramatically.
In the opening week of the games (June 7-13), the highly anticipated match-up between the U.S. and England, as well as the death of Nelson Mandela’s granddaughter, were significant newsmakers as World Cup coverage filled 3.0% of the newshole.
Attention dropped somewhat in the second week of games (June 14-20), to 2.2%. One major narrative in the coverage was a controversial 2-2 tie between the U.S. and Slovenia that featured a disallowed U.S. goal.
Attention remained steady at 2.2% the week of June 21-27. The U.S. defeated Algeria on June 23 putting the team into the next round play. But the June 26 loss, by 2-1 to Ghana in overtime, ended the World Cup competition for the American team.
After that game, attention to the competition dropped dramatically—to 1.0% of the newshole from June 28-July 4. This represents a 66% percent drop in attention for the opening week. And it is a 55% drop from just one week earlier when the U.S. was still involved.
Given that focusing on the home team is a basic component of sports coverage, the exit of the U.S. team certainly could be a significant factor in the diminished coverage. But that could also be attributed to the reduced number of games as the tournament moved on. There were about 20 games per week in the first few weeks and just 8 games last week. Whether or not the championship game, scheduled for July 11, will attract significant attention from the U.S. media remains to be seen.
Tricia Sartor of PEJ
Date Posted: July 8, 2010
40% - Percentage of Gulf oil spill stories that have been reported from the scene
The massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has dominated the headlines since the Deep Water Horizon rig exploded on April 20. Indeed, from April 20-June 20, the disaster filled more than a quarter (26%) of the newshole—more than doubling the attention to the next biggest story—the economy, at 12%. But it is not only the volume of reporting that sets the Gulf disaster apart from other news stories. The coverage also stands for the amount of “on-scene” reporting.
According to PEJ’s News Coverage Index, two out of every five stories about the oil leak have been reported from cities other than the major media capitals of Washington DC, New York and Los Angeles as well as CNN’s home base in Atlanta. And a vast majority of that reporting has come directly from the Gulf coast region.
With journalists talking to local fishermen and residents and providing footage and first-hand accounts of oily beaches, 40% of the oil spill stories originated outside the major media hubs. An additional 32% of the stories had New York datelines and 23% came from Washington.
That kind of on-scene reporting bucks the general trend in which national stories are most often reported from one of those four major news centers. Thus far in 2010, 71% of all news stories studied by PEJ have originated from New York and Washington. Just 15% of stories have been reported from other U.S. locations outside the four media centers, and only 10% have originated from international cities.
The year’s top story, the U.S. economy, was overwhelmingly reported from New York (48%) and Washington (35%). The same pattern held for the health care debate (the No. 3 story) with 45% of those stories datelined from New York and 44% from Washington. Both of those stories had strong Beltway political components.
But some of the year’s biggest stories show a more diffuse reporting pattern. While 72% of the stories about the 2010 mid-term elections (the year’s No. 4 story) originated from New York or Washington, nearly a quarter (24%) came from non-media hub cities as key races occurred in places such as Pennsylvania, Nevada and South Carolina.
And the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti in January (the No. 5 story in 2010) had the most on-the-ground reporting of any major story this year. Nearly half (49%) of the Haiti stories had an international dateline while 41% came from either New York or Washington.
Tricia Sartor of PEJ
Date Posted: June 23, 2010
June 21, 2010
The drive for health care reform legislation proved to be the most passionate and polarizing policy fight of Barack Obama’s first year in office, with the public and Congress deeply divided over the initiative. And much of that battle played out through a changing media universe. A new PEJ study, examining 10 months of health care stories, identifies some of the key elements of that coverage.
Six Things to Know About Health Care Coverage
1st - Rank of the BP oil spill among disaster stories since 2007
The massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico topped the news agenda the week of June 7-13, registering at 34% of the newshole. That marks the fifth week in a row that the event has dominated the headlines. Indeed, in the eight weeks since the April 20 rig explosion, the disaster has overshadowed every other news story, filling 23% of the newshole in that time frame. The second-biggest story in that period has been the U.S. economy, well behind at 13%.
Not only has the Gulf saga become the leading news story of the past two months. It is also the most-covered disaster since PEJ began its News Coverage Index in January 2007, generating 1,637 stories since the April 20 accident. And at this point, there is no end in sight to either the Gulf gusher or the media’s interest in it.
One thing that sets the oil spill apart from most other disasters is the story’s staying power. Many natural or human-caused disaster stories have faded from the media spotlight quickly, becoming in effect “one-week wonders”. Among the six most-covered disasters examined by PEJ since January 2007, only the oil spill and the devastating January 12, 2010, earthquake in Haiti have filled more than 2% of the newshole for longer than two weeks.
Indeed, that catastrophic Haiti quake—estimated to have killed 230,000 people and left 1 million homeless—is the No. 2 disaster story since 2007. The week it occurred, January 11-17, 2010, the story filled 41% of the newshole—higher than any single week of coverage of the oil rig disaster. Attention to the quake and its aftermath remained high and continued to fill at least 5% of the newshole for the next four weeks. This sustained coverage generated 1,027 stories.
In a distant third place are the wildfires that struck Southern California in October 2007. Those blazes, which killed 9 people and destroyed about 1,500 homes, generated 544 stories. Next, with 495 stories, is the August 7, 2007, rush-hour collapse of an eight-lane bridge in Minneapolis that killed 11 and injured 145.
The fifth-biggest disaster story in the past three years (478 stories) is the severe flooding across the Midwest in June 2008 which led to 13 deaths. Finishing next, at 393 stories, was Hurricane Ike, which reportedly killed 195 (112 in the U.S.) as it passed over Haiti and Texas in September 2008.
Tricia Sartor and Dana Page of PEJ
Note: Beginning in 2010, PEJ made changes to the NCI universe that result in fewer stories being coded each week. This fact makes the differences between coverage of the oil spill and the previous disasters even more pronounced. Complete details about the changes to PEJ’s sample are available here.
Date Posted: June 16, 2010
June 11, 2010
Media Coverage of the Clergy Abuse Scandal
Newspaper coverage of the Catholic clergy sexual abuse scandal grew more intense this spring than at any time since 2002, and European newspapers devoted even more ink to the story than American papers did, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center.
The heavy coverage in Europe was a reversal of the pattern in 2002, when a Boston Globe series triggered an avalanche of reporting on sexual abuse by priests in the United States but relatively few stories appeared in the European press. In early 2010, by contrast, much of the reporting focused on sexual abuse of children in Europe, and English-language European newspapers published three times as many articles on the scandal as U.S. papers did, the new study finds.
In addition, the media scrutiny this year zeroed in on the pope himself. During the six-week period from March 12 through April 27, Pope Benedict XVI was a major focus of more than half the stories on the scandal in the mainstream U.S. media, including print, radio, network television, cable TV and online news sources.
These are among the key findings of the study, conducted jointly by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, both of which belong to the nonprofit, nonpartisan Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C.
The amount of coverage devoted to the pope may not be unusual, given his role in the church and the media’s tendency to focus coverage of scandals on individuals rather than institutions. But the thrust of the recent coverage – dwelling particularly on allegations that the pope abetted the cover-up of abusive priests in his native Germany and elsewhere – has been toxic for Benedict’s image.
In a nationwide poll released by the Pew Research Center in April, for example, just 12% of the public said the pope has done a good or excellent job addressing the scandal, down from 39% two years earlier. About seven-in-ten Americans (71%) said Benedict has done a poor or only fair job, up from about half (48%) who felt that way in 2008.
The new Pew Research Center study examined coverage of the scandal in 52 mainstream U.S. news outlets: 11 newspapers, 12 news websites, seven network TV programs, 15 cable TV programs and seven radio programs and news updates. In addition, the study looked at blogs and social media, relying in part on data from Tweetmeme, a Twitter monitoring service. A Nexis search of English-language newspapers around the world from 2002 through 2010 was used for historical comparisons. Stories from three Catholic news organizations were analyzed separately, as were religion blogs carried by major U.S. newspapers.
Among the findings of the study:
- From mid-March (when the pope’s role in a decades-old abuse case in Germany came under scrutiny) through late April, clergy sexual abuse was the eighth biggest story in the mainstream media, beating out coverage of nuclear weapons policy and the Tea Party movement. The biggest week of coverage was March 22-28, when news organizations reported on the failure of Vatican officials years ago, including the future pope, to defrock an American priest who had abused nearly 200 deaf boys. The church scandal was the fourth biggest topic in the mainstream news that week.
- Benedict was by far the biggest newsmaker, featured in 51.6% of the stories about the scandal in the mainstream media during the six-week period studied. All other individual figures combined, including cardinals, bishops and priests, appeared as lead newsmakers in just 12% of the stories.
- The level of coverage this year came very close to that of 2002, when the news erupted that Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston and other bishops across the United States had shuffled accused abusers from parish to parish without informing the police or public. A Nexis keyword search of 90 media outlets found 1,559 stories mentioning the scandal in the first four months of 2010, just 77 fewer articles than in a similar four-month period in mid-2002 (May 1-Aug. 31). No other developments in the scandal during the intervening eight years even came close to generating that level of coverage.
- An examination of three Catholic news outlets reveals wide differences in their approaches. The National Catholic Reporter, an independent weekly, devoted fully two-thirds (66.7%) of its Vatican coverage to the scandal. Two Catholic news services, on the other hand, devoted considerably less of their Vatican coverage to the story. Catholic News Service gave it 44.8%, and the Catholic News Agency gave it 33.3%.
- The scandal found little traction in new media, however. Across the millions of blogs and Twitter posts tracked in PEJ’s weekly monitoring, the clergy abuse scandal registered as a leading topic in only one of the six weeks analyzed. During the week of March 29-April 2, when new information emerged about the Milwaukee archdiocese’s handling of an abusive priest, the scandal was the second-largest story, making up 9% of all Twitter links to news reports. But it did not rank in the top five most blogged-about news stories at all.
- Among the religion blogs published by high-circulation U.S. newspapers, those operated by USA Today and The Washington Post contained the most entries on the clergy abuse scandal – a total of 12 each during the six weeks studied.
Read the complete report.
9:1 - Ratio of science and technology coverage on blogs compared to the traditional press
When it came to interest in topics such as government and foreign events, a new study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism found that there were not large differences between the blogosphere and traditional press.
But one area of wide divergence in the new media's and mainstream media's news agendas occurred in the fields of science and technology.
According to an examination of PEJ’s New Media Index from January 19, 2009-January 15, 2010, 18% of the most linked-to stories on blogs in a given week were about science and technology news. In that same time frame, only 2% of the mainstream press newshole focused on these topics, as measured by the News Coverage Index.
Given their use of new media platforms, the subject of technology and its role in communication seems to be a natural fit for many bloggers. And when it came to science, bloggers seemed to enjoy sharing and commenting on unusual findings or events that were virtually ignored in traditional news media
In the year-long period examined by the PEJ, science topics accounted for 10% of the most linked-to stories in the blogosphere. The discovery of a new kind of large rat in Papa New Guinea, news that a chemical found in blue M&Ms might have therapeutic qualities, and the discovery of a meat-eating plant were some of the unique science news that blogs have featured and discussed.
In technology news, blogs spent significant time spreading the word about possible problems online, such as an email phishing scam that compromised at least 30,000 email passwords around the world. Other technology stories garnering interest included the new version of the Kindle, and an interview with the founders of Twitter. Technology stories such as these accounted for 8% of the most linked-to blogosphere subjects.
In the traditional press, science accounted for just 1% of overall newshole in the year-long period studied. Among the stories covered were President Obama lifting Bush Administration restrictions on stem cell research and NASA’s November mission to the International Space Station.
Technology news—often focused on internet security—also accounted for 1% media coverage. The switch from analog to digital television and stories about such issues as texting while driving also contributed to the technology news.
Date Posted: May 26, 2010
May 23, 2010
The stories and issues that gain traction in social media differ substantially from those that lead in the mainstream press. But they also differ greatly from each other. Across a year-long study of blogs, Twitter and YouTube, the three platforms shared the same top story just once. What are the stories and issues that dominate in theses platforms? And what media outlets tend to provide those stories? A new year-long study by report offers answers.
New Media, Old Media
#5 - Rank of the Nashville disaster among most-covered U.S. floods since 2007
The early May floods that brought death and destruction to the Southeast, particularly Tennessee, did not generate much media coverage. A reported 30 people were killed, making it the deadliest U.S. flood in the past three years. And Nashville Mayor Karl Dean has predicted the damage to his city will cost at least $1.5 billion. But the disaster filled just 4% of the newshole from May 3-9, and was overshadowed by the failed Times Square bomb attempt (25%) and the Gulf oil spill (20%).
The lack of coverage even became part of the media narrative, mostly notably when CNN’s Anderson Cooper acknowledged, on air, the national media’s failure to cover the flooding more aggressively.
Not only did coverage of the Tennessee floods pale in comparison to the other top stories that week. Even though the death toll was the highest of any of them, the disaster ranks as only the fifth-most covered U.S. flood since PEJ began tracking this in January 2007.
The biggest flood story occurred in June 2008, when several rivers in the Midwest overflowed. Thirteen people were killed across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin. The weeks of June 9-15 and June 16-22, attention to the flooding in those states filled 10% and 16% of the newshole respectively.
In August 2007, rushing water across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin killed 18 people. That story filled 7% of the newshole the week of August 19-24, 2007. The week of March 29-April 4, 2010, floods in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut resulted in no deaths, but caused major damage and registered at 6% of the newshole.
Rounding out the list is the Red River flooding in North Dakota (5% of the newshole) the week of March 23-29, 2009. Most of the coverage focused on disaster preparations as the river did little damage in the U.S, but killed three in Canada.
Tricia Sartor and Dana Page of PEJ
Date Posted: May 19, 2010
20% – Percentage of news executives who say their staff is too small to do more than the minimum level of reporting
The floundering economy and struggling journalism industry have taken their toll in many newsrooms. Indeed when the Project for Excellence in Journalism—in association with the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) and the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA)—recently surveyed 353 newspaper and broadcast executives, seven out of 10 reported staff cutbacks in the past three years.
While the majority of executives surveyed in the News Leaders and the Future study said their organizations are coping with the changes, others acknowledge a significant impact. Fully 20% of newsroom executives say their staff is now too small to do more than “the bare minimum level of reporting.” And another 1% of say the staff is so small that they “cannot meet the needs of their news operation.”
The largest segment of respondents say their newsrooms are still functioning well, albeit not at optimum capacity. Two-thirds, 66%, say their staff is “leaner than ideal, but that they can still do the job well.” One executive explained that given the tighter staffing, “We have been forced to focus like a laser on what we can do well and not worry about the rest.”
And only 8% of those responding say the newsroom “is still plenty big to do the job.”
Newspaper executives offered a slightly more positive assessment than broadcast officials of how their newsrooms were functioning, but the differences weren’t large. What these responses do suggest is that, within the news industry, the idea that staffs had gotten bloated—and that these cutbacks have sliced into fat and not bone—is not widely shared.
Tricia Sartor of PEJ
Date Posted: May 11, 2010
#1 - Where the new Arizona law ranks among biggest weeks of immigration coverage since 2007
On April 23, Arizona’s governor signed a law requiring police to check the status of persons suspected of being in the country illegally. That state law quickly became a national issue. Supporters say it was a necessary step in controlling the violence perpetrated by illegal aliens. Opponents argue that it encourages racial profiling and have called for a boycott of the state. And for the week of April 26-May 2, that raging debate filled 16% of the newshole.
This level of coverage made immigration the No. 3 story that week (behind the economic crisis, 23%, and the gulf oil spill, also at 16%). And it was easily biggest week of immigration news since PEJ began the News Coverage Index in January 2007.
The only other time the immigration issue has come close to generating this level of coverage was in May and June of 2007 when then-President George W. Bush pushed for the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act. In the six week period from May 13-June 29, immigration reform was a top-five story each week.
Indeed, five out of the top six weeks of immigration coverage since January 2007 occurred in that period when the issue was at the center of a heated legislative fight—highlighting a trend we have seen with such stories as the health care debate and the economy. Coverage tends to increase dramatically when the narrative features a Beltway battle.
PEJ saw the first spike in immigration coverage the week of May 13-18, 2007, when a group or senators agreed on the outlines of a bill that would provide ‘Z-visas’ and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Coverage filled 9% of the newshole that week. The following week, from May 20-25, the Senate began debate on the bill and the topic generated 10% of the overall coverage. The week of June 3-8, when the bill was defeated in the Senate, the subject accounted for another 9% of the newshole.
President Bush then pushed to revive the measure and the issue registered at 11% from June 10-15, 2007. But when the bill made it back to the Senate floor for a vote on June 28, it suffered its final defeat. Coverage of the immigration reform bill peaked that week, June 24-29, at 12% of the newshole.
Tricia Sartor of PEJ
|
Powered by: Phase2 Technology
