---
title: "News Interest Index"
description: "Report Summary The Alaska oil spill was the story that attracted the most public attention in early May. Nearly nine in ten Americans (89%) were following news coverage of the Alaskan oil spill very or fairly closely. A majority (52%) were following very closely, and a plurality (36%) chose it as the news story they […]"
date: "1989-05-01"
authors:
  - name: "Pew Research Center"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/1989/05/01/news-interest-index/"
categories:
  - "News Coverage"
---

# News Interest Index

## Report Summary

The Alaska oil spill was the story that attracted the most public attention in early May. Nearly nine in ten Americans (89%) were following news coverage of the Alaskan oil spill very or fairly closely. A majority (52%) were following very closely, and a plurality (36%) chose it as the news story they paid the most attention to in the last month.