News Media Trends

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.

Although the scandal enveloping Rupert Murdoch’s media empire has focused on his British properties, it has also put News Corp’s. U.S. outlets under a brighter spotlight—particularly the prestigious Wall Street Journal he acquired by purchasing Dow Jones for $5 billion in 2007.
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Overview The debate over raising the federal debt limit proved to be the public’s – and the media’s – top news story last week as the federal government neared a possible default and high level deficit-reduction talks produced no agreement. About three-in-ten (31%) say they followed the discussions about how to address the federal deficit […]

Assessing a New Landscape in Journalism By Jesse Holcomb, Tom Rosenstiel, Amy Mitchell, Kevin Caldwell, Tricia Sartor and Nancy Vogt A new phenomenon has emerged in journalism in recent years-the era of non-profit news. As traditional newsrooms have shrunk, a group of institutions and funders motivated by something other than profit are entering the journalism […]