News Content Analysis

First it was Egypt, then Bahrain and last week, Libya as the media focused on yet another country in the rolling and roiling season of Mideast revolution. Back at home, the faceoff between pro-union forces and Wisconsin’s Republican governor fueled coverage of the week’s second-biggest story.

Two very different issues led the conversation on the blogosphere last week: the record U.S. deficit and the post-Mubarak transformation in Egypt. On Twitter, the No. 1 topic was self-referential— a list of influential English people who use Twitter.

Summary of Findings The public’s interest in developments in Egypt remained high last week as the media focused increasingly on domestic debates over how to deal with the fiscal troubles facing many states and how to bring down the federal deficit. About a third of the public (32%) says they followed news about the situation […]

The unveiling of the president’s fiscal blueprint as well as a fight over budget priorities in Wisconsin helped push coverage of economic issues to the top of the news agenda last week for the first time in two months. And the media turned their attention away from Egypt to neighboring nations.

In social media, YouTube viewers remained fixated on the dramatic events that deposed the 30-year leader of Egypt. But on both blogs and Twitter, the attention turned elsewhere—to a domestic issue that many saw as a civil liberties litmus test.

Summary of Findings The sudden conclusion to Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year reign in Egypt dominated both news coverage and the public’s news interest last week. Fully 48% say they followed news about Egyptian protests and Mubarak’s resignation more closely than any other story, far surpassing the week’s other stories. The news media devoted 39% of coverage […]

The story from Egypt seemed to ebb and then peak last week, leading to a rush of coverage once the demonstrations turned into a successful revolution. No other story came close to generating that level of coverage last week. Now comes the hard part—understanding what will happen after Hosni Mubarak.

Last week, bloggers tackled the situation in Egypt as both reporter and commentator. More were critical of Obama’s actions but the discussion moved far beyond the current president. And two of the most-viewed videos on YouTube featured scenes of the protests in the streets of Cairo.

Summary of Findings The public’s interest in news about the massive anti-government protests in Egypt surged last week, but did not keep pace with the growth in media coverage. About a third (32%) of the public says they followed news about the protests in Egypt very closely last week. That’s nearly double the 17% that […]