Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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The 2012 campaign was the top story last week as Republican hopefuls met in a New Hampshire debate that produced some media winners and losers. Worries about the economy were a close No. 2. And three weeks after the initial scandal broke, Anthony Weiner’s resignation was major news.
The study, Non-Profit News: Assessing a New Landscape in Journalism, involved several phases, all of which were performed in-house by PEJ researchers. The primary PEJ staff members conducting the research, analysis and writing included: Tricia Sartor, Weekly News Index manager; Kevin Caldwell, researcher/coder; Nancy Vogt, researcher/coder; Jesse Holcomb, research associate; Amy Mitchell, deputy director; Tom […]
To assess ideology, researchers measured three different elements of a site’s news content. They examined the range of viewpoints represented in each story in which the subject involved some matter of disagreement, conflict or controversy. They looked at the narrative frame of the story to see if it reflected one of a detailed list of […]
In a week in which the president defended his Libya policy to the American public, the Middle East again topped the news agenda. But coverage of that subject and the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake tailed off a bit last week as both crises defied any quick resolution.
A natural disaster at home, a royal wedding abroad and the release of a birth certificate were all among the big news-making events from April 25-May 1. News about the economy and violence in the Middle East vied for attention too. But all that changed abruptly in the week’s waning hours.
For a second week in a row, the media focused on the economy and away from foreign affairs. Last week, driven by a Presidential speech, the government shutdown was replaced with a larger debate about national fiscal priorities. Lurking in the background was the 2012 presidential race, a story that gave tycoon and Obama birth certificate skeptic Donald Trump a platform of his own.