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Summary of Findings As the fight in Washington over health care reform continues to dominate public attention and media coverage, most Americans are critical of the way news organizations are explaining key elements of the debate. News about proposed health care legislation was the most closely followed story of last week, just as it had […]
Summary of Findings The public sharpened its focus on health care reform last week, following news about the debate in Washington more closely than any other story. Interest in health care reform has steadily increased in recent weeks as coverage – including a prime-time presidential news conference – has intensified. Nearly a third (31%) name […]
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.
Bloggers last week returned to two issues that generated interest in recent weeks. For the second time in a month, Afghanistan led the news in the blogosphere. And musician Dave Matthews sparked a second round of heated online debate with some comments about racism. On Twitter, for this week at least, the focus moved beyond Twitter itself.
The arrest of Roman Polanski dominated the blogosphere last week, with online commentators overwhelmingly condemning the filmmaker for the crime he committed three decades ago. And a CNN sparring match between anchor Wolf Blitzer and filmmaker Michael Moore was among the week’s most viewed YouTube news videos.
A discussion that revolved around the critics of Barack Obama and his policies dominated the blogosphere last week—with the Tea Party protests and Jimmy Carter’s remarks about race as the main catalyst. On YouTube, an exhibition of public rudeness was the most viewed video.
Thanks to speculation about Barack Obama’s crucial September 9 speech, the health care debate was, once again, the week’s leading story. But press attention more generally was split among a series of significant events, both at home and abroad.