News Coverage

The deal to raise the debt ceiling in Washington drew harsh criticism from both the left and the right last week as the subject received significant attention on blogs, Twitter and YouTube. The other subject to generate substantial interest on both blogs and Twitter was news about a teen pop star.

Overview Negative views of economic news have risen sharply since last month and now stand at their highest level in well more than two years. Fully 67% say they are hearing “mostly bad” news about the economy, up 18 points in the last month alone and more than 40 points since the start of 2011. […]

The long-awaited debt ceiling deal in Washington triggered a torrent of overwhelmingly negative economic coverage that easily proved to be the dominant story of the week. And two major newsmakers earlier in the year, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifffords, re-emerged in the headlines last week.

A comparison between the Tea Party and characters in the Lord of the Rings trilogy generated a lively debate on the blogosphere last week. Twitter users complained about Formula 1auto racing. And the most viewed videos on YouTube depicted the carnage from the July 22 attacks in Norway.

Overview The tense negotiations in Washington over legislation to cut the federal deficit and raise the nation’s debt limit topped the public’s news interest and the media’s coverage for the third consecutive week. Four-in-ten (40%) say they followed news about the debt debate more closely than any other news last week, while the fight’s various […]

After building for more than a month, the Beltway Battle over the debt ceiling exploded as a story last week, accounting for more than half of the newshole. No other story even generated double digit coverage in a week dominated by a single subject.

Overview With a deadline fast approaching and talk of serious economic consequences without congressional action, the standoff in Washington over raising the debt limit was the top story last week for both the public and the news media. Yet public interest in the federal budget deficit and national debt is not much higher than it […]

The growing News of the World scandal drew increased media attention last week, but not enough to stanch interest in the debt deliberations in Washington, which have fueled the top story for five weeks running. A record-breaking heat wave, the end of an era at NASA and a relatively quiet presidential campaign also ranked among the top stories last week.

Twitter users continued to voice their displeasure at Rupert Murdoch last week, and a discussion of the scandal affecting his company was among the top videos on YouTube. On blogs, the No. 1 story was about the federal government’s ruling that marijuana has no accepted medical use.

The scandal rocking Rupert Murdoch’s media empire—as well as the highest circles of British politics and law enforcement—has been a major story in the U.S. news media for two weeks. But how has Murdoch’s cable news channel here covered the story? A PEJ examination has some answers.