Cyclone eats into campaign coverage

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But the week of May 5-11 was still all about the battle for president, on the Democratic side, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism. The weather disaster in Myanmar blew a few points off the campaign, which had key primary battles in North Carolina and Indiana to focus on. And Myanmar actually headed the list among online journalists.


But when push came to shove, it was election 46%, cyclone 15%. The two stories ate so much of the hole that five others were able to find a niche on the overall top ten list with a mere 1% of the focus. 

There was a good deal of scattershot interest in foreign stories other than the cyclone, but none were so compelling as to amass widespread interest and many showed up on only one of the five charts. To see coverage by media, click on the headline above.

Story Overall Newspaper Online Net. TV Cable TV Radio
2008 Campaign 46% 27% 29% 41% 75% 56%
Myanmar cyclone 15% 15% 31% 18% 6% 6%
US economy 5% 9% 6% 4% 1% 1%
Immigration 2% 6% x x 1% x
Gas/oil prices 2% 2% 3% 3% 1% 3%
Microsoft/Yahoo 1% 4% 2% x x x
Iraq events 1% 2% x 2% x x
Russia 1% x 3% x x x
Israel turns 60 1% 2% x x x x
Iraq homefront 1% x x 2% x 1%
Israel/Palenstein x 2% x x x x
AR/MO storms x 2% x x x x
Lebanon violence x x 2% x 1% x
North Korea nukes x x 1% x x x
Olympics x x 1% x x x
Austrian house/hostages x x 3% x x x
Kentucky Derby x x x 3% x 1%
Jenna Bush wedding x x x 2% 1% x
Philadelphia police beating x x x 1% x x
San Diego U. drug bust x x x 1% 2% x
Texas polygamy raid x x x x 1% x
Iraq policy x x x x 1% x
China x x x x x 2%
War on terror x x x x x 2%
Iran x x x x x 1%
Pakistan x x x x x 1%

Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism

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