News Interest vs. News Coverage Situation in Iraq 25 2008 Campaign
News about an Atlanta man infected with a dangerous form of tuberculosis drew a large audience last week. The saga of the man’s illness and his travels abroad was the second most closely followed news story of the week – trailing only the situation in Iraq. Nearly a quarter of the public (24%) paid very close attention to the tuberculosis story and 23% said it was the story they followed most closely. Public interest was fed by intense media coverage of the story. It was the most heavily covered news story of the week, comprising 12% of the national newshole.
Interest in the situation in Iraq remained high last week. Three-in-ten Americans followed events in Iraq very closely and 25% said this was the single news story they followed more closely than any other. The public continues to pay closer attention to events in Iraq than to the Iraq policy debate: 20% followed the policy debate very closely and 7% listed it as their top story. The news media split its Iraq coverage last week among events on the ground (7%) and the impact of the war at home (4%), including coverage of Cindy Sheehan’s decision to put her anti-war efforts on hold, and the Iraq policy debate (4%).
News Interest vs. News Coverage  | Week of May 28  | Situation in Iraq 25  | TB traveler 23  | 12  | 2008 Campaign  | Iraq policy  | US/lran talks  | Darfur  | Interest: percent who followed this story most closely  | Coverage: percent of news coverage devoted to story 