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Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
Gas Prices, Disasters Top News Interest in 2007
Man-made and natural disasters dominated the list of the public's top news stories in 2007. Nearly half of Americans (45%) tracked news about the shootings of 33 students at Virginia Tech University very closely, while nearly as many paid very close attention to reports on the Minneapolis bridge collapse and the California wildfires.
As was the case in 2006, however, the rising price of gasoline attracted the largest audience of any news story. In May, 52% of Americans said they tracked rising prices at the pump very closely.
The Iraq war also continued to be a major story in 2007, though public interest in the war peaked early in the year and then fell noticeably. In early January, 40% followed news of President Bush's troop surge very closely, while about the same proportion paid very close attention to reports on the situation in Iraq. By December, just 28% on average paid very close attention to news about Iraq.
Comparing News Coverage and Audience Interest
This year, for the first time, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press tracked public interest in the news on a weekly basis. The weekly News Interest Index was paired with the News Coverage Index, an initiative of The Project for Excellence in Journalism, which monitors the amount of news coverage devoted to major stories by newspapers, television, radio and online news outlets.
The news story that received the greatest amount of coverage in any given week this year was the Virginia Tech shootings. For the week of April 15-20, coverage of the tragedy in Blacksburg, Virginia accounted for 51% of the entire national newshole. No other story came close to attracting that amount of coverage in a single week.
The California wildfires were the second most heavily covered story, receiving 38% of the coverage the week of October 21-26. The Iraq policy debate accounted for 36% of the national news coverage the week of September 9-14. This included coverage of Gen. David Petraeus' status report on Iraq and testimony before Congress.
Coverage Lagged Interest: Iraq Vets and Product Recalls
Many of the news stories that received the most coverage also ranked near the top of the list in public interest, including Virginia Tech, the California wildfires and the Minnesota bridge collapse. Yet there also were a number of instances when public interest surpassed news coverage, or vice versa.
News about rising gas prices received relatively little coverage but still registered strongly with the public. During the week of May 20-25, 52% said they followed rising gas prices very closely (the highest percentage for any story in 2007), while 27% said it was the story that week they followed most closely.
But just 4% of news coverage that week was devoted to reports on gas prices. More than twice as much news coverage that week was devoted to immigration (10%), the Iraq policy debate (10%), and the situation in Iraq (9%); each of these stories drew less public interest than did rising gas prices.
The story of poor treatment for Iraqi troops recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center also struck a nerve with the public, but received only modest news coverage. During the week of March 4, 20% of Americans cited Walter Reed as their most closely followed story of the week, trailing only the situation in Iraq (27% most closely).
After the Washington Post exposed the shabby treatment for veterans at Walter Reed, other news organizations followed suit. During the week of March 4, 6% of news coverage was devoted to the story. That same week, the war in Iraq (15%) and the verdict in the trial of former White House aide Scooter Libby (13%) received far more coverage. The Libby story drew approximately twice as much coverage as Walter Reed (13% vs. 6%), but just 6% of the public cited the Libby case as that week's top story compared with 20% for Walter Reed. In that same week, 24% of the public said the Walter Reed story was receiving too little coverage from the media, only 4% thought it had been overcovered.
The pet food recall in late April attracted a significant amount of public interest: 17% listed this as their most closely followed story of the week, though the news media devoted just 1% of its overall coverage to this story. Another recall story followed a similar pattern. When Chinese-made toys were recalled in early November, 15% of the public said this was the story they were following most closely. Women were particularly interested in this story, with 23% listing it as their top story. The media devoted 2% of its coverage to the story.
News about the dangers of an antibiotic-resistant staph infection topped the news interest index the week of October 14. Fully 18% of the public listed this as their most closely followed story of the week, again women followed the story much more closely than men. Coverage of this story accounted for 3% of the national newshole.