News Content Analysis

The Beijing Olympics gave media an opportunity to report on the athletic competition and life inside the world’s most-populous nation. What—and who—got covered? Were there differences by media? And how did that differ from coverage abroad?

Summary of Findings The upcoming Democratic National Convention is generating much more public interest than did the party’s convention four years ago. Fully 59% of Americans say they are interested in following what happens at the Democratic convention, up from 36% in 2004. Nearly a third (31%) say they are very interested, while 28% say […]

Last week, for the first time this year, an event other than the race for president was the No. 1 story. The crisis with Russia was the top story and campaign theme in a week when Barack Obama got more coverage, but John McCain may have gotten the better of it.

The story of the troubled U.S. economy has proven a hard one for journalists to tell. How have the media covered the slump? How timely was the reporting? Did the media influence public attitudes?

Summary of Findings The China Olympics are catching on with the American public and attracting a sizeable news audience. A majority of Americans say they are watching at least some of the Olympic coverage. Public interest in the Beijing games is comparable to that of the 2000 summer Olympics in Sydney; yet substantially lower than […]

One week after sharing headlines equally with John McCain, Barack Obama again dominated the news last week. And even as McCain and Obama sparred over energy, the old question of what do the Clintons want generated major coverage.

Summary of Findings As he has since January, this week, Barack Obama enjoyed much more visibility as far as the public was concerned than did John McCain. By a margin of 76% to 11% respondents in Pew’s weekly News Interest Index survey named Obama over McCain as the candidate they have heard the most about […]

After accusations of pro-Obama bias and a run of media soul searching, and helped by a heavy dose of controversial attack advertising from his campaign team, Republican nominee John McCain finally forced Barack Obama to share the headlines last week.

Summary of Findings Barack Obama’s weeklong tour of the Middle East and Europe dominated campaign coverage last week, and 90% of the public heard at least something about his travels. Obama’s trip became one of the biggest campaign events thus far, with 62% saying they heard a lot about it. The only campaign development more […]

Barack Obama’s week-long tour of world hotspots and capitals generated more coverage than any campaign event in months. But in the end, the media wondered what he had accomplished and whether they were paying too much attention.