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Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
Public Blames Media for Too Much Celebrity Coverage
Cable and Network TV Worst Offenders
An overwhelming majority of the public (87%) says celebrity scandals receive too much news coverage. This criticism generally holds across most major demographic and political groups. Virtually no one thinks there is too little coverage of celebrity scandals, according to new national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
When asked who is most to blame for the amount of coverage these kinds of stories receive, a majority of the public point to the media. Fully 54% of those who say celebrity news is over-covered also believe news organizations are to blame for giving these stories so much coverage. Roughly a third (32%) say the public is to blame for paying so much attention to them, and another 12% say the media and the public are both equally to blame.
Men and women generally agree on this question, although women tend to follow tabloid stories more closely than do men (52% of men and 55% of women blame news organizations for all the coverage). Republicans and Democrats also agree on this issue – though Republicans are often more critical of media practices (57% of Republicans and 52% of Democrats blame the media for too much tabloid news). The survey was conducted July 27-30 from a nationally representative sample of 1,027 adults.
One noteworthy difference in opinion on the question of who is to blame for tabloid news coverage can be seen across age groups. Young people blame the public more than the news media. Nearly half of those under age 30 say it's the public's appetite for scandal news that spurs the amount of coverage, 31% say news organizations are to blame. Among those over age 30, large majorities blame the media, while less than 30% blame the public.
Throughout 2007 there has been no shortage of news involving Hollywood celebrities. Paris Hilton's brief but memorable stint in jail became a national news story earlier this summer. During the first week in June, when she was briefly released from jail and then sent back, 4% of the national news was devoted to the story and 12% of the American public said the Hilton saga was the story they were following more closely than any other. Earlier in the year, Anna Nicole Smith's death was an even bigger story. During the two days immediately following Smith's death, nearly a quarter of the news from all sectors (24%) was devoted to this story. Public interest did not match the amount of coverage, and 61% of Americans said the story was being over-covered. Nonetheless, there was a core audience for the story that stuck with it throughout the next few weeks.
The vast majority of coverage of this year's biggest celebrity scandals – namely Anna Nicole Smith's death and Paris Hilton's legal problems – could be seen on cable television news. During those first two days after Smith's death fully half of cable news coverage was devoted to this story, making it by far the most heavily covered story of the week on cable. Similarly, the Paris Hilton story was featured much more prominently on cable TV news than on other sectors. In the week she was released and then sent back to jail, Hilton was the number three story on cable TV. It was the eighth most heavily covered story on network TV news and it didn't make the top ten in the nation's newspapers.
When asked which types of news organizations give celebrity scandals the most coverage, the public points to television but does not make a clear distinction between cable and network TV. Roughly a third (34%) say cable news networks such as CNN, MSNBC and the Fox News channel are the biggest purveyors of celebrity news. Another 27% say that the big three network news outlets give these stories the most coverage. Internet news websites are cited by 15% of the public, 8% name newspapers and 4% point to radio news programs.
Democrats are more likely to say cable news has the most celebrity coverage, as opposed to network news (37% say cable, 25% say network). Republicans are evenly split on the issue (31% cable, 30% network). Young people are among the most likely to list cable as the worst offender – 40% of those under age 30 say cable news has the most celebrity coverage, only 17% point to network news.
One of the most recent celebrity scandals, Lindsay Lohan's arrest on a second drunken driving charge, generated little interest from the public. Only 8% followed this story very closely last week, another 19% followed the story fairly closely.
In the most recent week, data relating to news coverage was collected from July 22-27 and survey data measuring public interest in the top news stories of the week was collected July 27-30 from a nationally representative sample of 1,027 adults.