Percent of Overall News Coverage Focused on Iraq
Although interest in Iraq news has declined this year, it has been the top story in the weekly News Interest Index far more often than any other story. Last week, however, about as many people named the 2008 election as cited the Iraq war as the story they followed most closely (22% vs. 20%). A week earlier, the California wildfires were the dominant story in terms of news interest: roughly four times as many named the wildfires as the week’s top story as cited the war in Iraq (46% vs. 12%).
News coverage of Iraq during 2007 also was higher in January than it has been for most of the period since then. In January, news organizations devoted 26% of the overall newshole to three main elements of the Iraq story — the Iraq policy debate, events in Iraq, and news about the homefront — according to data collected by the Project for Excellence in Journalism for its News Coverage Index.
The track of news coverage for the year shows that the Iraq policy debate has consistently received more coverage than have events in Iraq, according to the PEJ data. Indeed, during the two months in which news organizations have provided the greatest amount of overall news coverage of Iraq — January and September — the bulk of that coverage has been focused on the policy debate rather than on events in Iraq. In January, of the 26% of news coverage on Iraq, 18% was focused on the policy debate, while just 6% of the coverage was of news about events in Iraq. That was the case in September as well, when news organizations devoted more than twice as much coverage to the Iraq policy debate than to events in Iraq (16% vs. 6%).
Percent of Overall News Coverage Focused on Iraq  | 26  | 23  | 22  | 20  | 18  | 16  | The policy debate  | Events in Iraq  | The home front  | Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun  | Jul Aug Sep Oct  | Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism 