Public’s Top Stories of the Decade — 9/11 and Katrina
The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 drew more public interest than any other story in the past decade. The 2005 hurricanes in the Gulf, high gasoline prices and the collapse of the economy in 2008 also grabbed overwhelming public attention.
Top Stories of 2010: Haiti Earthquake, Gulf Oil Spill
Two major disasters captured the public’s attention more than any other major stories in 2010, but Americans also kept a consistent eye on the nation’s struggling economy.
Parsing Election Day Media
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.
Tech Times: Media Coverage of Technology
Much of the coverage of technology in the mainstream press split into competing story lines: that it makes life easier and that it is not secure. Social media, however, had a more positive focus on technological advancements. With regard to corporations, Apple was more covered than Google.
How the Media Covered the Gulf Oil Spill Disaster
The disaster in the Gulf dominated the news for the 100 days following the initial rig explosion. A media analysis finds the mainstream press spent considerable time reporting from the region and humanizing the crisis.
The Story of Shirley Sherrod: Reconstruction of a Media Mess
A media analysis of the Shirley Sherrod story traces how the story evolved and played out in the media in that frantic period between the July 19 release of the video and the July 21 apologies to Sherrod from Gibbs and Vilsack as well as Fox News host Bill O’Reilly.
Media, Race and Obama’s First Year
A year-long study finds that, as a group, African Americans attracted relatively little attention in the U.S. mainstream news media during the first year of Barack Obama’s presidency — and what coverage there was tended to focus more on specific episodes than on broader issues and trends affecting the lives of blacks generally.
How the Press Covered Health Care Reform
Media coverage of the health care debate followed a roller coaster trajectory, spiking dramatically at times and plunging at other points. The media focused far more on the politics of health care than the system or plans for reform.
Media Coverage of the Catholic Clergy Sex 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.
Religion in the News: 2009
Pope Benedict XVI, though he made no visits to the United States last year, was the subject of two of the top 10 religion stories, while the Obama administration accounted for three of the top 10 religion-focused storylines during the year
