If it bleeds it leads is more than a cliche, so it should come as no surprise that the bridge collapse in Minneapolis easily dominated news coverage for the week of 7/29/07-8/3/07, according to the weekly survey by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. The event was not all-consuming, but it still helped knock combined Iraq coverage out of double digits for one of the few times all year, and also kept the early focus on the 2008 campaign in single digits. It was otherwise a diffuse week, indicated that getting into a tie for fourth place required only 3% of the news hole. Five stories made the top ten that were not on the list before. There was news about news to cover – we refer to Rupert Murdoch’s acquisition of Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal, which would combine it with Fox Network, Fox News Channel and other newspaper holdings. Print, online and radio journalists all made it a top ten story, but both network TV and cable focused their attention elsewhere, despite the fact that in both cases the major player was one of their own. Technical differences in the media were exposed by the Minneapolis bridge collapse. Cable coverage approached the halfway point as the story grabbed 43% of available time. The more static newspaper format led editors to limit it to a mere 10%. The other three media gave it between 19%-29%.
|
Story |
Overall |
Newspr |
Online |
NetTV |
CATV |
Radio |
|
MN bridge collapse |
25% |
10% |
22% |
29% |
43% |
19% |
|
2008 campaign |
8% |
8% |
4% |
5% |
9% |
11% |
|
Iraq events |
5% |
6% |
6% |
6% |
x |
3% |
|
Iraq policy |
3% |
3% |
x |
5% |
2% |
4% |
|
Murdoch/WSJ |
3% |
5% |
3% |
x |
x |
3% |
|
Justice Roberts’ health |
3% |
2% |
3% |
5% |
2% |
x |
|
Alberto Gonzales |
2% |
x |
x |
x |
3% |
7% |
|
Domestic terrorism |
2% |
x |
x |
3% |
4% |
2% |
|
Ingmar Bergman dies |
2% |
5% |
x |
x |
x |
x |
|
US/UK summit |
2% |
x |
4% |
3% |
x |
x |
|
Iraq homefront |
x |
4% |
x |
x |
x |
x |
|
Health care |
x |
3% |
x |
x |
x |
x |
|
US economic numbers |
x |
2% |
4% |
x |
x |
x |
|
Afghanistan |
x |
x |
5% |
x |
x |
x |
|
Global warming |
x |
x |
4% |
x |
x |
x |
|
Pat Tillman |
x |
x |
3% |
3% |
x |
3% |
|
Drug Avandia |
x |
x |
x |
2% |
x |
x |
|
Polical corruption |
x |
x |
x |
2% |
2% |
x |
|
Immigration |
x |
x |
x |
x |
3% |
2% |
|
Michael Vick |
x |
x |
x |
x |
2% |
3% |
|
Connecticut murders |
x |
x |
x |
x |
2% |
x |
Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism
