Citizens not at heart of US economic crisis news coverage, says Pew report
Big institutions dominated financial news stories, suggests new study
– 2 min read
This article was migrated from an old version of our website in 2025. As a result, it might have some low-quality images or non-functioning links - if there's any issues you'd like to see fixed, get in touch with us at info@journalism.co.uk.
Big business and the US government set the agenda for US media's coverage of the financial crisis, not the public, a new report has suggested.
According to the study from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, 32 per cent of economic stories were triggered by White House and government officials.
Businesses generated 21 per cent of stories, while the media itself initiated 23 per cent, it said.
"Citizens may be the primary victims of the downturn, but they have not been not the primary actors in the media depiction of it," it said.
The report, which initially looked at around 9,950 stories from US media between February 1 and August 31 this year, also suggested there was a 'narrow focus' to the coverage.
Three themes accounted for almost 40 per cent of the economic stories studied: reviving the banking sector, the stimulus package and the US automotive industry.
In contrast, subjects that would affect more of the population, such as the impact on healthcare and education, only made up around two per cent of the stories, the report added.
The study also included detailed analysis of economic coverage between February 1 and July 1, while using Memetracker technology to examine the ideas and phrases most used in the coverage online, including blogs, news sites and RSS feeds.
Attention to the economic crisis in the media dropped during the period studied: the story accounted for 46 per cent of overall news coverage, but decreased to 21 per cent in April to June and fell further between July and August (16 per cent).
Newspapers devoted more coverage to the story than any other sector with 37 per cent of all national and international coverage on front pages between February to early July covering the crisis.
Web coverage followed this, with 30 per cent of the studied sites’ top coverage relating to the crisis over the same period.
The study can be read in full on the PEJ website .
Related reading:
Written by
Laura Oliver is a freelance journalist, a contributor to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, co-founder of The Society of Freelance Journalists and the former editor of Journalism.co.uk (prior to it becoming JournalismUK)
Comments
