Economy, ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Drive the News

The economy reclaimed its perch at the top of the news agenda as the No. 1 story last week, largely driven by dramatically increasing media attention to the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.

Overall economic coverage accounted for 22% of the newshole from October 3-9, up from 14% the week before (when it was No. 2), according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. The protests largely aimed at Wall Street constituted the largest single thread in that coverage, making up about one-third of the economic storyline. That amounted to roughly 7% of the overall newshole, or nearly four times the amount of protest coverage from the week before. The debate over President Obama’s jobs bill was largely responsible for the second biggest theme of economic coverage last week, the employment situation, which accounted for an additional one-third of economic coverage. Last week was also the biggest yet for 2012 campaign coverage, at 18% of the newshole. That subject generated the most attention on cable TV, accounting for 34% of the airtime studied. For the past month, the campaign, at 14% of the newshole, has been the No. 2 story behind the economy—suggesting the media have entered a new phase of the election cycle in which the presidential race is a weekly priority.