The media scrambled last week as authorities arrested a suspect in the Times Square terror case, the Gulf oil spill grew more ominous, Wall Street went briefly into free fall and floods took a deadly toll in Tennessee. All of which left little room for coverage of a crucial overseas election.
The blogosphere was focused on two major news events last week, the failed bombing attempt in Times Square and the spreading oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. And in both instances, the conversation included a lot of partisan finger pointing. The oil spill was also among two of the most viewed news videos on YouTube while Twitter remained more fixated on Apple.
This week’s News Coverage Index examines the agenda in one media sector—daily newspapers. And it reveals that the unanswered questions about the attempted bombing of a U.S. airliner were still dominating coverage a week after the event occurred. Meanwhile, the state of the economy was the week’s second-biggest topic.
Due to inclement weather, the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism is not publishing a full Weekly News Index report for December 14 – 20. PEJ is, however, making the data available.
Following an interview with one of the leading scientists in the so-called “Climate-gate” controversy, bloggers engaged in a passionate exchange over the merits of climate change science. On Twitter, an airline’s treatment of an overweight celebrity was the top story. And on YouTube, the tragic death of an Olympic luger was a leading driver of traffic.
Ending a lull in coverage, the battle over health care reform returned as the No. 1 story last week as 23 senators cast votes on the issue. But the nation—and the media—were also captivated by a strange story about a six-year-old boy that began as breathless breaking cable news.
It was a war that often had trouble breaking into the headlines. But in recent months, with President Obama facing a crucial decision over whether to escalate U.S. involvement, coverage of Afghanistan increased noticeably. And last week, as the policy debate intensified, the story dominated finally the news.
Coverage of health care was up last week, the economy was down and the war in Afghanistan remained about the same. But together, this trio continued their run atop the news agenda, a pattern we began to see settle in earlier this fall.
The fight over health care legislation continued to dominate the news, but with a narrative twist that was tough on Barack Obama. And a crucial election kept the spotlight on Afghanistan, a conflict increasingly showing up in the headlines.
Last week, the health care debate remained the lead story as talk hosts argued about whether the confrontations between protestors and politicians were genuine or choreographed. And thanks to a dramatic prisoner release in North Korea, a former president made almost as much news as the current one.
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