News Media Trends

The media were riveted last week by a made-for-headlines scandal involving one of the more combative members of Congress. The U.S. economy, the chaos in the Mideast and the emerging presidential race also generated significant attention, but they could not rival a story about the intersection of sex and politics.

For the first time in two months—driven largely by the Sarah Palin bus tour—the news discussion on blogs turned back to politics. On Twitter, business strategies for social media and concerns about global warming led the way. And on YouTube, the economic crisis in Spain was the subject of the two most popular videos.

Lee Rainie explores the role of social networks – the technological kind as well as the real-world kind – in shaping the way people gather community information and make sense of it.

Overview Following a series of downbeat reports about housing, jobs and the stock market, the public’s perceptions of economic news have turned much more negative. Fully 46% say they are hearing mostly bad news about the nation’s economy, up nine points since last month and the highest percentage since March 2009. Nearly as many now […]

Bad economic news became a political story last week as analysts evaluated the impact on President Obama’s fortunes. Sarah Palin’s bus tour drew as much attention as Mitt Romney’s presidential announcement with the campaign generating its highest level of coverage yet. And two political scandals provoked much speculation and one indictment.

A Supreme Court decision forcing California to release thousands of prisoners due to overcrowding received harsh criticism from bloggers last week, while others weighed in on the arrest of a suspect in a brutal baseball game beating. On YouTube, an interview with Jon Stewart on The O’Reilly Factor garnered the most attention.

Overview The devastating tornadoes that ripped through the Midwest last week dominated the public’s news interest and received much more coverage than any other story. About half of the public (48%) says they followed news about the powerful tornadoes that struck Joplin, Mo., more closely than any other news last week. None of the week’s […]

The latest outbreak of violent spring storms proved to be the biggest weather story in PEJ’s four years of tracking news coverage. An election in New York State turned into a major economic story and the prospect of a Palin candidacy helped drive coverage of the 2012 presidential campaign last week.

  Overview Americans continued to express strong interest in news about the death of Osama bin Laden and its ramifications last week, even as news coverage of the story continued to decline. About a quarter of the public  (27%) says they followed reports about the killing of bin Laden and its impact on U.S. relations […]

While the media devoted attention to the arrest of the IMF chief, the public had little interest. But a majority have heard a lot about Schwarzenegger's troubles.