Mainstream, new media getting a weekly checkup

MAINSTREAM, NEW MEDIA GETTING A WEEKLY CHECKUP
[SOURCE: USAToday, AUTHOR: Peter Johnson]
Researchers routinely study the coverage of specific media outlets. But no group has ever studied what all forms of media are reporting day to day. That will change this month when the Project for Excellence in Journalism kicks off an ambitious weekly study of what stories almost three dozen media sources are reporting, what news they view as important and how reporting differs among outlets. To be analyzed are nine daily newspapers, as diverse as The New York Times and the Austin American-Statesman; morning and evening newscasts on ABC, NBC and CBS; prime-time talk shows on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC; headlines from CBS and ABC Radio; and various Internet bloggers. Each Tuesday, PEJ will issue a report on its website (journalism.org.) about the media agenda — what was covered and what wasn't. It will include an index of the top stories each week and a narrative analyzing the twists and turns of the coverage. The report also will include a breakdown of the differences among the media sectors. The project, which is financed by a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts, comes as mainstream media outlets are merging and starting up Internet outlets and creating vast sources for news and information. The study is intended to help consumers see how different media play top stories of the day and could help media outlets better gauge the so-called broccoli-vs.-Twinkie debate, "the line between what they think the public needs to know and what they want to know," PEJ director Tom Rosenstiel says.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20070102/d_mediamix02.art.htm
* For more information see http://www.journalism.org/about_pej/about_us