News Coverage vs News Interest Health care reform 66
The long-running debate over health care reform continued to dominate public attention and media coverage last week as the final skirmishes played out on Capitol Hill and President Obama set out to promote the newly-enacted law.
Two-thirds of Americans (66%) say they followed the health care debate more closely than any other major news story last week. Another 5% say they followed news about vandalism and threats directed at Democrats who voted for the legislation most closely, according to the latest News Interest Index survey conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press among 1,018 adults March 26-29.
The news media and the public were on the same page last week. Stories about the final steps in enacting the legislation and analysis of its expected impact accounted for 38% of the newshole, while reporting about the vandalism and threats made up another 7%. Together, they made up 45% of coverage last week, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.
News Coverage vs News Interest  | Health care reform 66  | 38  | Vandalismithreats  | Vatican scandal  | Israel-U S tensions  | Stock market  | Google- China  | Interest: percent who named story as most closely followed  | Coverage: percent of news coverage devoted to story 