Bad News Drives Economy Coverage

A run of gloomy news -- more partisan disagreement on raising the debt ceiling, rising unemployment numbers and continued housing woes -- drove the economy to the forefront of the media agenda last week.

As the recovery appeared to falter, the U.S. economy accounted for 19% of the newshole during the week of May 30-June 5, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. That represented the biggest week for economic coverage since April 11-17, when the narrowly averted government shutdown helped to make that subject the focus of 39% of the newshole. The growing sense that the economic recovery has stalled invited the media to weigh the impact on President Obama, with analysts noting that his reelection prospects were not helped by last week’s news. The week’s No. 2 story was a related subject -- the 2012 presidential election -- that has slowly but steadily crept to the fore of the mainstream media agenda. Last week, attention to the race -- mostly focusing on the emerging and potential crop of Republican candidates -- accounted for 12% of the newshole, its biggest week of coverage yet.