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Project for Excellence in Journalism
Midterms Already Edging Out the Economy on Media Agenda
The 2010 midterms dominated the news agenda for the second week in a row and seemed poised to emerge as the major mainstream media story of the fall season.
From Sept. 20-26, the elections accounted for 25% of the newshole, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. That is down modestly from the previous week (30%), when Christine O'Donnell's Septe. 14 upset victory in Delaware's GOP Senate primary drove the narrative.
That was still almost twice as much coverage as the next biggest story, the economy (13%). The significant political narratives of the week included continuing coverage of the Tea Party movement's influence and the Republicans unveiling their "Pledge to America" policy blueprint.
The midterm elections are unlikely to approach the kind of sustained attention paid to the 2008 presidential race, which filled a whopping 36% of the newshole in 2008. But with the potential to switch party majorities in the House, and possibly even the Senate, the elections have been the top story for the last two months (edging out the economy 14% to 12%) and are likely to generate more attention in the countdown to the Nov. 2 balloting.
The subject on which the outcome of the midterms may well pivot, the troubled U.S. economy, was the No. 2 story last week. One of the significant events was the news that the recession was officially over -- and had indeed ended in June 2009. But that report had to compete with a widely disseminated video of an Obama supporter who, addressing the president at an economy-oriented town hall meeting, declared, "I'm exhausted ... defending you."
The No. 3 story, at 4%, was the Senate's blocking last week of a measure that would have repealed the current "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy regarding gay men and women serving in the military.
The fourth biggest story of the week was the education system (3%), but that was propelled largely by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million gift to the Newark, N.J. public school system. This marked that second week in a row that education, a subject that does not often generate much mainstream media coverage, made the roster of top-five stories. The week before it was the No. 3 story at 3%, with coverage including a mix of educational issues.
Finally, the No. 5 subject, also at 3%, was the war in Afghanistan where the major news was the death of nine U.S. troops in a helicopter crash. Another story related to the war -- the release of Bob Woodward's new book reporting on deep divides within the Obama administration over Afghanistan policy -- accounted for an additional 3% of the coverage.