---
title: "Panama Tops January News Interest Index"
description: "Report Summary In December, Americans paid great attention to the invasion of Panama. News of the Romanian revolution, however, attracted only a modest level of public interest. While sixty percent of the public followed events in Panama very closely, only 28% said that they were very attentive to the violent overthrow of the Ceausescu government. […]"
date: "1990-01-11"
authors:
  - name: "Pew Research Center"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/1990/01/11/panama-tops-january-news-interest-index/"
categories:
  - "News Coverage"
---

# Panama Tops January News Interest Index

## Report Summary

In December, Americans paid great attention to the invasion of Panama. News of the Romanian revolution, however, attracted only a modest level of public interest. While sixty percent of the public followed events in Panama very closely, only 28% said that they were very attentive to the violent overthrow of the Ceausescu government. News about the on-going political changes in East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Hungary got as much attention from the public as did the Romanian bloodbath (29%).