Campaign for President Takes Center Stage in Coverage

Quarterly Report on the News
Topline - Part 1

PEJ News Coverage Index
April 1 – June 29, 2007

All Media
Top Stories
(Percent of Newshole)

2nd QTR

Rank

Story All Media
1st QTR 2nd QTR YTD
1 2008 Campaign 7.4% 8.5% 8.0%
2 Events in Iraq* 6.8 6.7 6.7
3 Iraq Policy Debate* 12.4 6.6 9.5
4 Immigration 1.5 5.7 3.6
5 VA Tech Shootings n/a 4.9 2.5
6 Don Imus n/a 2.4 1.2
7 Iran 3.4 2.1 2.8
8 Fired Attorneys 3.6 1.9 2.8
9 Iraq Homefront* 3.0 1.5 2.3
10 Palestinian Conflict 0.1 1.4 0.8
11 Global Warming 1.4 1.2 1.3
12 TB Traveler n/a 1.1 0.6
13 Domestic Terrorism 1.5 1.1 1.3
14 US Economic Numbers 0.9 1.0 0.9
15 Afghanistan 1.1 0.9 1.0
Iraq War Total (sum of the three starred stories) 22.2% 14.8% 18.5%

Note: All other stories were less than 0.9% for the 2nd quarter.

Newshole is defined as the time or space available in an outlet for news content.

 

All Media
Geographic Focus
(Percent of Newshole)

 

Geographic Focus

All
1st
QTR
2nd
QTR
YTD
US National 63% 65% 64%
US Interests Abroad 27 23 25
Foreign(Non-US) 8 12 10
Local* 1 <1 1
No Specific
Geographic Focus
<1 <1 <1

Note: For newspapers, we do not include a local newspaper story in our study unless that story also falls into the realm of one of the Top Stories we are tracking at the time.

Newspapers
Top Stories
(Percent of Newshole)

2nd QTR

Rank

Story All Top Tier Second
Tier
Third
Tier
QTR YTD QTR YTD QTR YTD QTR YTD
1 2008 Campaign 7.7% 7.4% 7.6% 7.3% 10.1% 10.8% 3.6% 2.7%
2 Events in Iraq* 7.1 6.8 7.2 7.0 7.6 7.4 5.7 5.0
3 Immigration 5.1 3.8 4.7 3.5 6.5 4.8 6.1 4.6
4 Iraq Policy Debate* 4.5 5.9 3.7 5.3 5.0 5.9 10.3 11.6
5 VA Tech Shootings 3.4 1.7 2.6 1.4 5.4 2.7 6.7 3.1
6 Iraq Homefront* 2.5 3.2 1.4 2.3 4.1 5.9 9.7 6.4
7 US Economic Numbers 1.7 1.4 1.4 1.4 2.9 1.6 2.2 1.5
8 Fired Attorneys 1.6 2.1 1.3 1.8 3.8 4.1 0.9 1.8
9 Palestinian Conflict 1.5 0.8 1.3 0.7 2.8 1.5 0.7 0.3
10 Global Warming 1.4 1.4 1.2 1.1 2.4 3.0 1.8 1.9
Iraq War Total (sum of the three starred stories) 14.1% 15.9% 12.3% 14.6% 16.7% 19.2% 25.7% 23.0%

Note: All other stories were less than 1.4% for all newspapers in the 2nd quarter.

 

Newspapers
Geographic Focus
(Percent of Newshole)

 

Geographic Focus

All Top Tier Second Tier Third Tier
QTR YTD QTR YTD QTR YTD QTR YTD
US National 64% 64% 62% 62% 70% 65% 71% 70%
US Interests Abroad 21 22 21 22 20 22 21 20
Foreign(Non-US) 14 12 17 15 7 5 2 1
Local* 1 3 1 1 3 9 7 8
No Specific Geographic Focus <1 <1 <1 <1 0 0 0 0

Note: For newspapers, we do not include a local newspaper story in our study unless that story also falls into the realm of one of the Top Stories we are tracking at the time.

 

Online
Top Stories
(Percent of Newshole)

2nd QTR

Rank

Story All AOL News CNN.com Google News MSNBC.com Yahoo News
QTR YTD QTR YTD QTR YTD QTR YTD QTR YTD QTR YTD
1 Events in Iraq* 13.1 12.7 9.8 11.2 13.9 15.1 10.9 7.5 11.4 11.2 19.7 18.9
2 Iraq Policy Debate* 5.3 7.2 5.7 7.6 3.8 6.3 7.4 9.1 4.6 6.2 5.1 7.0
3 2008 Campaign 4.9 4.5 5.6 4.8 5.6 4.6 4.9 5.1 5.7 5.7 2.4 2.0
4 VA Tech Shootings 3.8 1.9 3.5 1.7 6.1 3.1 1.1 0.6 4.5 2.3 3.6 1.8
5 Immigration 3.0 1.7 3.3 1.9 4.5 2.6