The 2008 campaign, the economy, the Middle East and the price of petroleum products continued to dominate media coverage during the week of 7/7/08-7/13/08, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism.
Although the campaign coverage was at a reasonably moderate 29% level, the effect of the summer doldrums on news coverage was demonstrated by the existence of a wide variety of other stories all receiving a relatively small amount of coverage.
One of the few new stories on the overall top ten list was the G8 summit, and it didn’t even make the top ten list for two of the five surveyed media.
It will be interesting to see if there are any breakout stories in the remaining weeks before the national party conventions take place and the campaign shoots back over the 50% level again.
| Story | Overall | Newspaper | Online | Net. TV | CATV | Radio |
| 2008 campaign | 29% | 12% | 14% | 26% | 58% | 38% |
| US economy | 7% | 11% | 10% | 9% | 3% | 2% |
| Iran | 5% | x | 15% | 3% | 4% | 5% |
| Gas/oil prices | 5% | 5% | 4% | 8% | 4% | 4% |
| California wildfires | 3% | x | 3% | 6% | 3% | 3% |
| Events in Iraq | 3% | 4% | 5% | x | 1% | x |
| G8 summit | 2% | x | 7% | 3% | x | 1% |
| Afghanistan | 2% | x | 5% | x | 2% | x |
| Global warming | 2% | 4% | x | x | x | x |
| Colombia hostages | 2% | x | x | 2% | 2% | x |
| Iraq homefront | x | 5% | x | x | x | x |
| Heart disease research | x | 4% | x | x | x | x |
| Health care | x | 4% | x | x | x | x |
| Olympics | x | 2% | x | 2% | x | x |
| Immigration | x | 2% | x | x | x | x |
| Istanbul attack | x | x | 3% | x | x | x |
| iPhone | x | x | 3% | x | x | x |
| JonBenet Ramsey case | x | x | x | 3% | x | x |
| Energy debate | x | x | x | 2% | x | x |
| Domestic terrorism | x | x | x | x | 2% | 4% |
| Hurricane Bertha | x | x | x | x | 1% | x |
| Congressional campaigns | x | x | x | x | x | 2% |
| Supreme Court | x | x | x | x | x | 2% |
| Fired US attorneys | x | x | x | x | x | 2% |
Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism
