News Content Analysis

The leak of some 90,000 classified war reports triggered a renewed debate over war strategy in Afghanistan. With court action in Arizona, the immigration debate dominated cable news.

Coverage of the conflict in Afghanistan got a big boost last week after the WikiLeaks organization unearthed classified reports casting doubts on the prospects for U.S. success there. But in a balanced news week, a key ruling in the Arizona immigration battle, the departure of an embattled BP CEO and a sluggish economy shared the media’s attention.

Last week, a blogger’s discovery of a doctored BP photograph generated the most interest in the blogosphere. Next came a discussion of the changing news business triggered by a humorous column from a veteran journalist. On Twitter, users were most interested in tracking how social networking sites were faring. On YouTube, an airborne donkey drew the most hits.

As the media landscape shifts, where can people turn for coverage of local news subjects, particularly government and public affairs? A new study conducted by a team of Michigan State University researchers, examines 175 communities and finds the majority of news about local government still comes from newspapers. But in many cases it is weeklies not dailies providing the most coverage. PEJ offers a summary of their findings.

Summary of Findings The controversy surrounding the firing of U.S. Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod attracted widespread attention from the news media last week and was the dominant story on cable news networks. The public, however, showed modest interest in the Sherrod affair and, as has been the case since early May, the oil […]

As a group, African Americans attracted relatively little attention in the U.S. mainstream news media during the first year of Barack Obama’s presidency — and what coverage there was tended to focus more on specific episodes than on examining how broader issues and trends affected the lives of blacks generally.

In a week in which economic news nearly hit a three-month high, cable talk shows were dominated by the resignation of a federal employee whose comments on race were taken out of context by a conservative website. Meanwhile, in the Gulf of Mexico, the debate was about the merits of plugging the BP oil well with a “topkill” or a “bottom kill.” 

The Shirley Sherrod saga started with a video posted online and ended with a flurry of finger pointing.  In a special report, PEJ reconstructs a chronology of how the story reverberated around the media echo chamber before dramatically changing course. And this week’s News Coverage Index finds that the tale of the USDA employee prematurely forced out of her job was the No. 2 story in the news agenda.

The fallout from the firing of Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod and the one-year anniversary of the controversial arrest of African American Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., have put race back in the news. How much coverage do African Americans receive? What role did race play in coverage of the Obama Administration? A new study examining media coverage of African Americans in the first year of the Obama presidency offers answers.

Election-year politics and a noteworthy poll made up the hottest story in the blogosphere last week. Meanwhile on Twitter, a technology topic involving oft-scrutinized Apple topped the news agenda. And on YouTube, the most popular subject by far was Paul the octopus, the world-class World Cup handicapper.