News Interest Vs. News Coverage News Interest
No story captured the public’s attention last week nearly as much as the death of Trayvon Martin, which was the most closely followed story for the second straight week (30%). That was followed by a trio of topics—Supreme Court hearings about the 2010 health care law, 2012 election news and the economy—that divided the public’s attention roughly equally.
Overall, 15% of the public followed the Supreme Court hearings about the 2010 health care law most closely. About three-in-ten (29%) say they followed this story very closely.
The hearings accounted for 19% of news coverage, according to a separate analysis by PEJ. The broader debate over health care, which includes the hearings, was PEJ’s top story of last week, making up 21% of the newshole.
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