Measuring News Interest story Percent "very following each
About a quarter (26%) of the public says they very closely followed news about vandalism and threats directed at Democrats following the health care reform vote; 5% say this was the story they followed most closely. Democrats (33%) were more likely to have followed this story very closely than were Republicans (20%). A quarter of independents (25%) followed this story very closely. Reporting on this topic made up 7% of news coverage, according to the PEJ analysis.
One-in-five say they very closely followed news about tensions between Israel and the United States, and 4% say this is the story they followed most closely. Republicans (28% very closely) followed this story more closely than did independents (19%) or Democrats (15%). News coverage of this topic accounted for 3% of the newshole.
Fewer than one-in-five (17%) paid very close attention to reports about the Vatican’s handling of sex-abuse scandals in the Catholic Church. Still, that was more than twice as many as followed the story very closely one week earlier (8%); 4% said this was the story they followed most closely. News about this story accounted for 3% of coverage.
As the Dow Jones Industrial Average flirted with 11,000 points, few Americans were paying close attention. Just 13% say they very closely followed recent ups and downs in the stock market, while 3% say this is the story they followed most closely. Men (18%) were more likely than women (9%) to have followed the stock market very closely, and Republicans (20%) were more likely than independents (12%) or Democrats (11%) to have kept a very close eye on the market. Stories about the stock market made up less than 1% of coverage.
Measuring News Interest  | story Percent "very following each  | Vyhich Follow one story closely' did you  | story "very following closely  | Follow most closely'  | Health care 49  | 66  | I 5  | Vandalism 26  | Vatican scandal 17  | Israel-U.S rels 20  | Stockmarket 13  | Google-China 