Project for Excellence in Journalism

Media Ride Electoral Wave

by Mark Jurkowitz, Associate Director, Project for Excellence in Journalism
October 26, 2010

With Election Day looming and some key races tightening, the 2010 midterm elections dominated the news agenda last week, registering their highest level of coverage to date.

For the week of Oct. 18-24, the congressional election cycle accounted for 38% of the newshole, up substantially from 28% the previous week, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. That also eclipsed the previous high-water mark for this year's midterm coverage (30%), which occurred from Sept. 13-19 when Tea Party candidate Christine O'Donnell won a stunning victory in Delaware's GOP Senate primary.

Both of the central media narratives of this campaign gained momentum last week: The battle for control of the Senate, highlighted by a number of very close races in crucial states; and the nasty tenor of many of these campaigns, including everything from sharp-elbowed ads to personal attacks.

One of the races that featured both of those elements was in Kentucky. Democrat Jack Conway has been cutting into Republican Rand Paul's lead according to some polls, and last week the campaign was marked by a controversial Conway ad questioning Paul's religious beliefs. Rand and Conway were also among the individuals generating the most attention in last week's campaign news.

The No. 2 story, at 12%, was the state of the economy. For the past month, that narrative has been fueled by the issue of fraudulent foreclosure procedures, and the big news last week was that the Bank of America had decided to resume housing foreclosures.

The week's No. 3 story (at 5%) was a media controversy that quickly morphed into a political issue. NPR's firing of analyst Juan Williams -- after he said on the Fox News Channel that he gets "nervous" and "worried" when he sees people in "Muslim garb" on planes -- sparked a debate about journalistic practices and NPR's decision. But the episode also became a catalyst for some conservatives to call for defunding the public radio outlet.

The next two topics were about the two wars that have occupied America for the much of the past decade. News about Afghanistan was No. 4 at 3% of the newshole, with continuing reports of negotiations between the Taliban and the government of Hamid Karzai.

The No. 5 story (at 2%) was the release of new documents about the war in Iraq by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks on Oct. 22. Among other things that generated headlines, the documents highlighted civilian casualties, torture and the abuse of prisoners.

Back in the summer, in the week of July 26-Aug. 1, WikiLeaks' dissemination of documents connected to the war in Afghanistan garnered about six times the media attention: 13% of the newshole that week making it the No. 2 story. But some of that discrepancy in coverage levels can be attributed to the fact that the Iraq documents were not released until late in the week, on Friday. And in the period from Oct. 22-24, the story accounted for 8% of the newshole.

In another illustration the media's sometimes short attention span, the story of the dramatic rescue of 33 Chilean coal miners fell to 1% of the newshole from Oct. 18-24. That comes only a week after the episode captivated much of the world and registered as the No. 2 story, at 21% of the newshole.

Continue reading the full report at journalism.org.