News Interest vs News Coverage February9-15 Stimulus passage 44
While news about the economic crisis and the stimulus package continued to attract the most interest last week, a deadly plane crash near Buffalo, N.Y., also drew considerable public attention. About a third (32%) of Americans followed the crash involving Continental Connection flight 3407 very closely. The airline tragedy was the top story for 10% of the public. According to PEJ’s analysis, news coverage of the crash, which occurred late in the week, made up 5% of the newshole. The accident in Buffalo did not attract the same level of public interest as last month’s dramatic emergency landing of a U.S. Airways jet in the Hudson River, where all on the plane survived.
The story of the California mother and her newborn octuplets continued to capture headlines and public interest. One-in-ten said the octuplets was their most closely followed story of the week, equal to the percentage citing the Continental plane crash. About one-in-four (26%) followed this news very closely compared with 23% during the previous week. The media, for its part, devoted 1% of total newshole to this story.
New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez made headlines last week when he admitted to using performance enhancing drugs from 2001 to 2003 when he played for the Texas Rangers. About one-in-ten (11%) followed news about his admission very closely, while 3% cited this as their most closely followed story. News about Rodriguez accounted for 1% of all news last week, making him the fourth biggest newsmaker behind President Obama, Senator Judd Gregg and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. News about Rodriguez using banned substances attracted almost as much interest as coverage of pitcher Roger Clemens testifying before Congress in February, 2008 about alleged steroid use.
News Interest vs News Coverage  | February9-15  | Stimulus passage 44  | 28  | 22  | Economy  | 19  | Buffalo plane crash 10  | Octuplets  | 10  | A-Rod  | Interest: percent who named story as most closely followed  | Coverage: percent of news coverage devoted to story 