Two hot stories yield tight news director focus

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The earthquake in Haiti and the surprising and dramatic senatorial race in Massachusetts made the job of a news director pretty easy during the week of 1/16-24/10, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Those two stories alone accounted for almost half of the total media newshole, garnering 27% and 21% of available time and space.


Other week-in week-out favorites filled out much of the chart, story threads including the economic crisis, health care, the Obama administration and Afghanistan.

Two other events that are not in the ongoing category also picked up significant attention – mudslides in California and the Supreme Court ruling on corporate and union campaign financing.

Cable as the most focused of all media, as is its habit. The 47% of coverage overall for the top two stories was amplified to 64% going over the medium’s wires.

Story Overall Newspaper Online NetTV CATV Radio
Haiti earthquake 27% 19% 30% 35% 32% 19%
MA Senate race 21% 13% 14% 18% 32% 30%
Economic crisis 7% 13% 8% 5% 5% 4%
Obama administration 7% 3% 6% 6% 11% 7%
Health care debate 5% 5% 5% 5% 7% 5%
SCOTUS campaign finance 5% 5% 7% 2% 2% 11%
CA mudslides 3% x 3% 6% 1% 3%
Afghanistan 2% x 5% 2% x x
China 2% 4% x 2% x x
2010 elections 1% 3% x x 2% 2%
Education system x 2% x x x x
US auto industry x 2% x x x x
NWA terror plot x x 2% x x x
Domestic terrorism x x 1% x 1% x
John Edward’s affair x x x 4% 1% x
Events in Iraq x x x x x 2%
Israeli-Palestinian conflict x x x x x 1%

Source: Project for Excellence in Jounalism