It was essentially a battle for second place among the ongoing journalistic narratives of 2007 as the California wildfires dominated coverage, claiming 38% of the total newshole, besting 30% for all media categories except newspapers and topping the 50% mark on television and cable. According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism coverage chart for the week of 10/21/07-10/26/07, the 2008 campaign received a bit more attention than the situation in Iraq, taking second place by a 9%-7% margin. No other story was able to break through for more than 3% of available space and time, and reporting on the US economy made it onto the top ten list with a miniscule 1% share. Coverage of a dangerous staph infection and AG nominee Michael Mukasey were the biggest to fall completely off the chart, but they were only at 3% and 2% anyway, so it wasn't that big of a drop.
|
Story
|
Overall
|
Newspr
|
Online
|
NetTV
|
CATV
|
Radio
|
|
California wildfires
|
38%
|
19%
|
33%
|
53%
|
51%
|
35%
|
|
2008 campaign
|
9%
|
12%
|
8%
|
5%
|
9%
|
9%
|
|
Iraq events
|
7%
|
8%
|
15%
|
5%
|
3%
|
10%
|
|
Iran
|
3%
|
2%
|
5%
|
4%
|
4%
|
1%
|
|
Iraq policy
|
3%
|
3%
|
x
|
x
|
5%
|
6%
|
|
Health care
|
2%
|
4%
|
x
|
1%
|
1%
|
5%
|
|
Baseball World Series
|
2%
|
4%
|
6%
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
|
Immigration
|
2%
|
3%
|
x
|
x
|
3%
|
2%
|
|
Domestic terrorism
|
2%
|
5%
|
x
|
x
|
1%
|
x
|
|
US economy
|
1%
|
x
|
1%
|
3%
|
x
|
1%
|
|
October heat wave
|
x
|
3%
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
1%
|
|
Pakistan
|
x
|
x
|
4%
|
2%
|
x
|
x
|
|
General war on terror
|
x
|
x
|
2%
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
|
Myanmar protests
|
x
|
x
|
1%
|
2%
|
x
|
x
|
|
Space Shuttle Discovery
|
x
|
x
|
1%
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
|
Gas/oil prices
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
3%
|
x
|
x
|
|
Missing UK girl
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
1%
|
x
|
x
|
|
Valerie Wilson/CIA leak
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
2%
|
x
|
|
Afghanistan
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
2%
|
x
|
|
Turkey/US relations
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
x
|
1%
|
Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism
