American Media News Coverage
Michael Vick Story Showed Difference in Coverage and Public Interest
A Pew Research Center survey demonstrates difficulty of giving the public the coverage it prefers, especially when the story involves black interests or the war in Iraq.
The American news media is having a tough time matching its coverage with the primary interests of its readers, listeners and viewers, according to the News Interest Index compiled weekly by the Pew Research Center.
The Michael Vick dog fighting story was a striking example of the difficulty. In its media survey the week of August 19-24, Pew reported that 18% of Americans said the Vick story was the most closely followed story of the week. However, the national media (newspapers, television networks, cable TV, radio and the Internet) devoted only 4% of its coverage to Vick.
The Midwest floods and the situation in Iraq that week presented similar results. Each of them received a 17% rating as the stories the public followed most. But the media devoted only 7% of its coverage to the floods and only 5% of it to the situation in Iraq.
Iraq Policy Got Most Coverage
By contrast, the media devoted 12% of its coverage, the highest percentage, to the Iraq policy story, most of which came from Washington. But only 8% of the surveyed Americans considered it their top story that week.
Some clarification of the percentages is necessary. Americans said the top six stories of week accounted for 81% of their most closely followed stories. However, those six stories accounted for only 43% of the coverage provided by the national media. The other 57% was devoted to the many other stories that developed that week and apparently accounted for only 19% of the most closely followed stories.
Compare by Order of Interest and Coverage
One partial way to clarify the situation a bit is to compare the order of the six most closely followed stories with the order of the actual news coverage devoted to them.
Percent of coverage
1. Iraq policy 12%
2. Hurricane Dean 11%
3. Presidential campaign 7%
4. Midwest floods 7%
5. Situation in Iraq 5%
6. Michael Vick 4%
Most followed stories
1. Michael Vick 18%
2. Midwest Floods 17%
3. Situation in Iraq 17%
4. Hurricane Dean 11%
5. Presidential Campaign 10%
6. Iraq Policy 12%
Again, the most dramatic comparison is the Vick story, first in interest and last in coverage.
The Pew Research Center also found a dramatic difference in how whites and blacks viewed media handling of the Vick story. Among whites, 69% said the media handled the story fairly, 12% said it was unfair and 49% said it received too much coverage.. Among blacks, 38% said he was treated fairly, 51% said he was not and 56% said the story was given too much coverage.
