Middle East Turmoil is Top Story

With Libya engulfed in civil war, the continuing turmoil in the Mideast returned to the top of the mainstream news agenda. From February 21-27, events in the Middle East, dominated by the precarious situation in Libya, accounted for 35% of the newshole, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Up from 22% the previous week, this marks the fourth time in the last five weeks the Mideast has ranked as the No. 1 story in PEJ’s News Coverage Index. A closely related topic—the rise in oil and gas prices attributed to the Libyan instability -- filled another 2% of the newshole. The oft-heard criticism that an insular U.S. media pay too little attention to international events is belied by the intensity of sustained coverage since protests erupted in Egypt on January 25. In the five weeks from January 24-February 27, unrest in the Mideast has accounted for 35% of the newshole, double that of the next biggest story, the economy, at 17%. To put that in context, that exceeds the biggest month of coverage of the BP oil spill (34% in May-June 2010) and just narrowly trails the biggest month of the 2010 midterm elections (37% from early October to Election Day on Nov 2). Indeed, the 35% of the newshole devoted to the Mideast in the past five weeks easily exceeds any month of coverage of the Iraq war, the most dominant international story tracked since PEJ began the News Coverage Index in January 2007.