News Content Analysis

Summary On the occasion of our transition from Times Mirror Center for the People and the Press to the Pew Research Center, we offer an overview of what we have learned during the past five years about the news stories that are followed closely by the public and how much Americans know about current events. […]

Report Summary A new study suggests that the way the media covers international news may be doing little to change the American public’s indifference to concerns about world events and foreign policy. A four-month analysis of over 7,000 international news stories now finds that newspapers and network television focus most often on world news that […]

Summary of Findings This joint project of the Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Columbia Journalism Review tracked the volume and tone of press coverage of the health care debate from September of 1993 through November of 1994. This final report summarizes the broadest findings of the […]

Report Summary According to the latest Times Mirror monthly News Interest Index, most Americans (55%) think that the press is unfair in the way it covers the Vice President. Only one in three Americans (33%) regard coverage of him as fair. Republicans and Independents were more likely than Democrats to be critical of the way […]

Report Summary In a month in which no single news story dominated public attention, Americans registered a strong protest about the amount of news coverage devoted to the marital breakup of Donald and Ivana Trump. A record 55% said there was too much news about the Trumps. This is by far the largest “over covered” […]

Report Summary Only 28% of Americans are paying close attention to the sweeping political changes taking place in Eastern and Central Europe. This represents a significant fall off in public interest in this story since November, when the Times Mirror News Interest Index found 50% following very closely the breaking news about the opening of […]

Report Summary News about the drug wars, international and domestic, dominated the American consciousness in September in a way that no other issue did. There was extensive public attentiveness, significant public understanding, and few complaints about the amount of press coverage devoted to the story:

Report Summary The Alaska oil spill was the story that attracted the most public attention in early May. Nearly nine in ten Americans (89%) were following news coverage of the Alaskan oil spill very or fairly closely. A majority (52%) were following very closely, and a plurality (36%) chose it as the news story they […]