News Interest vs News Coverage October 27 November 2
While news about the 2008 presidential campaign remained the public’s top story for a second week in a row, the conditions of the U.S. economy continued to attract considerable public interest. For the last two weeks, a third of the public (34%) has listed the economy as their most closely followed news story. Greater than six-in-ten Americans (63%) were following the economy very closely last week and another 27% were following economic news fairly closely. According to Pew’s PEJ, news coverage of the economy accounted for 13% of the newshole, down somewhat from the previous week when it was 22% of total news.
The murder of actress Jennifer Hudson’s mother, brother and nephew attracted the very close attention of 17% of the public. Fewer than one-in-ten (7%) listed news about the Hudsons as their most closely followed story of the week. As is often the case with tabloid stories, women were more interested in the story than men. Two-in-ten (22%) women followed this story very closely compared with 11% of men. The national media devoted 2% of all news to the Hudson family tragedy.
News Interest vs News Coverage  | October 27 November 2  | 2008 Campaign  | 54  | 42  | Economy 34  | 13  | Hudson family  | Iraq  | Gill and Chrysler  | Ted Stevens  | Interest: percent who followed this story most closely  | Coverage: percent of news coverage devoted to story 