Campaign gets a rest

Less than one fourth of available journalistic time and space went into coverage of the 2008 elections, one of the few times we've been able to say that all year. That's according to the latest report from the Project from Excellence in Journalism for the week of 6/9/08-6/15/08. Even more amazing perhaps is the constriction of the CATV tunnel, which managed to contain its own coverage at less than 40%, no mean feat for a medium that often scores in the 70s. The rest of the coverage charts were all over the place - weather events, economic issues, a smattering of international news, health issues and the passing of Tim Russert also registered. It was a rare week in which all five measured media had at least one issue all to itself in terms of top-ten coverage. Conspicuously missing from the entire report: Iraq.#Campaign gets a rest and another issue disappears

Less than one fourth of available journalistic time and space went into coverage of the 2008 elections, one of the few times we've been able to say that all year. That's according to the latest report from the Project from Excellence in Journalism for the week of 6/9/08-6/15/08. Even more amazing perhaps is the constriction of the CATV tunnel, which managed to contain its own coverage at less than 40%, no mean feat for a medium that often scores in the 70s. The rest of the coverage charts were all over the place - weather events, economic issues, a smattering of international news, health issues and the passing of Tim Russert also registered. It was a rare week in which all five measured media had at least one issue all to itself in terms of top-ten coverage. Conspicuously missing from the entire report: Iraq.

Story	Overall	Newspapers	Online	Net.TV	CATV	Radio
2008 campaign	24%	16%	24%	14%	39%	26%
Midwest weather/flooding	10%	4%	14%	16%	9%	6%
Gas/oil prices	7%	6%	6%	12%	6%	7%
Tim Russert dies	5%	x	x	6%	18%	x
Domestic terrorism	5%	6%	9%	2%	3%	7%
US economy	4%	5%	9%	x	x	6%
Boy scout camp/tornado	4%	x	4%	8%	5%	x
Tomatoes salmonella scare	2%	x	x	4%	3%	x
Afghanistan	2%	x	3%	3%	x	2%
Same-sex marriage	2%	4%	x	x	x	x
Immigration	x	4%	x	x	1%	x
Russia	x	2%	x	x	x	x
Cyberspace issues	x	2%	x	x	x	x
Worldwide food shortage	x	2%	x	x	x	x
Sudan plane fire	x	x	4%	x	x	x
Chinese earthquake	x	x	3%	2%	x	x
Bush's EU finale	x	x	3%	x	x	2%
Health care debate	x	x	x	2%	x	x
Kucinich/impeachment	x	x	x	x	2%	3%
East coast heat wave	x	x	x	x	1%	x
Energy debate	x	x	x	x	x	3%
Global warming	x	x	x	x	x	2%

Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism

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