Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
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The presidential campaign was the top story last week for the first time since mid-June, largely due to the buzz over a potential Chris Christie entrance into the GOP race. The economy followed close behind, with the emphasis on jobs, the banking industry and public unrest. And the trial of Michael Jackson’s doctor ranked among the top stories.
The fallout from the killing of Osama bin Laden continued to generate the most attention of any story in the mainstream media last week, though coverage fell off substantially. On cable news, where politics often dictates news agenda, the level of attention varied widely: CNN devoted the most attention to the story and Fox gave it the least.
Fire and fallout at a Japanese nuclear plant made the aftermath of the disastrous earthquake one of the biggest stories recorded by PEJ in the past four years. But by the end of the week, U.S. military action in Libya surpassed every other event, including Japan, in the news agenda.
Events and controversies related to Islam dominated U.S. press coverage of religion in 2010, bumping the Catholic Church from the top spot, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
There was a significant spike in coverage of the troubled U.S. economy last week as Washington seemed to start tackling some of the key issues more aggressively. And if Julian Assange wasn’t already a household word, the man famous for sharing U.S. secrets generated enormous attention with new revelations.
The economy topped the news for the sixth straight week, while a string of tragedies—the death of a top diplomat, the suicide of Bernie Madoff’s son, and the suicide of an unstable Florida gunman—also made headlines. And health care, after months of absence, returned to the news in a significant way.
