News media mostly agrees – it’s the economy

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The week of 12/7-13 was one in which the five media tracked by the Project for Excellence in Journalism were in general accord as to which stories warranted coverage, and all but one agreed that the top story was the economic crisis. Cable was the lone dissident, going strong for health care instead – a saga that was #2 overall.


Global warming came in third and made it a week with three stories getting into double digits in coverage share with a 10% showing.

Afghanistan has been one of the top three stories in recent months, but slipped to #4 during the week with 5%.

Very few stories were on individual media top ten lists that were not also on the overall media list. There were only six such stories – usually there are more than ten – and three of them were on the radio list.

Story Overall Newspaper Online NetTV CATV Radio
Economic crisis 16% 15% 19% 19% 10% 18%
Health care debate 14% 10% 11% 7% 25% 17%
Global warming 10% 8% 13% 10% 9% 11%
Afghanistan 5% 3% 6% 10% 4% 6%
Obama/Nobel Peace Prize 4% 2% 5% 5% 5% 2%
Pakistan 4% 3% 3% 3% 6% x
Winter storms 4% x 4% 12% 3% x
Domestic terrorism 3% 3% 3% 2% 6% x
Events in Iraq 3% 3% 6% 2% x 3%
Tiger Woods 3% x x 6% 4% x
Education system x 5% 5% x x x
Holiday season x 3% x x x x
Obama administration x x x x 3% 3%
Immigration debate x x x x x 3%
Pollution/going green x x x x x 2%
China x x x x x 2%

Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism