News Interest vs. News Coverage British hostages 21 Situation in Iraq 20
This past week, the presidential campaign was the third most closely followed news story. Fully one quarter of the public followed campaign news very closely and another 30% paid fairly close attention. Twelve percent of the public said the campaign was the single news story they followed more closely than any other. In terms of news coverage, the campaign was ranked no. 2 – 10% of the entire newshole was devoted to campaign news.
Two foreign policy stories topped campaign news last week in terms of public interest. Roughly three-in-ten Americans (31%) paid very close attention to the release of 15 British sailors and marines held captive by the Iranian government, and 21% said this was the story they followed most closely. The hostage story was no. 1 in terms of coverage: 12% of the newshole was devoted to this story. One third of the public paid very close attention to the situation in Iraq and 20% said this was the story they followed most closely.
While media coverage of the Iraq war remains focused more heavily on the policy debate, the public expresses more interest in events on the ground in Iraq. Coverage of the policy debate outweighed news about the war itself by a better than two-to-one margin this past week. At the same time, the public was more than twice as likely to list the situation in Iraq, rather than the policy debate at home, as their top news story.
News coverage of the firing of eight U.S. attorneys fell off dramatically last week, while public interest in the story remained fairly constant. The week of March 26, 11% of the newshole was devoted to the U.S. attorney firings – making it one of the top two most covered stories of that week. This past week, only 1% of the news coverage was devoted to this story. Roughly one-in-five Americans paid very close attention to this story last week and 6% said it was the story they followed most closely.
News Interest vs. News Coverage  | Week of April 2  | British hostages 21  | 12  | Situation in Iraq 20  | 2008 Campaign  | 12  | 10  | Global warming 10  | Iraq policy  | 8  | US attorneys  | Interest: percent who followed this story most closely  | Coverage: percent of news coverage devoted to story 