What News Was Last Week

WHAT NEWS WAS LAST WEEK
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Mark Jurkowitz]
The tale of two kidnapped teenagers, nature’s assault on California’s citrus crop, and another dose of “Obama-mania” competed with the Iraq crisis for the media’s attention last week. In the week of January 14-19, when President Bush hit the interview circuit to sell the “surge” plan and the UN reported more than 34,000 Iraqi civilian deaths in the year past, the war was again the leading topic in the news. When combined, the policy debate (the top story at 14%) and violence in Iraq (the fourth-biggest story at 6%) filled one-fifth of the total newshole. That, however, represented a 50% drop-off from the previous week when Iraq news virtually obscured every other event. (The drop-off would have been even greater were it not for television.) Several breaking and unfolding stories helped fill that void. They were led by the rescued Missouri boys (second on the main Index at 8%), a saga the press explored both for the ostensibly happy ending and the unanswered and sordid questions. Vicious storms that wreaked havoc with California’s economy and killed scores in the heartland were the third-most heavily covered story (at 6%). And political rock star Barack Obama’s establishment of an exploratory committee was enough to make the 2008 Presidential race the fifth biggest story at 5%. (The weekend announcements by Sam Brownback, Bill Richardson, and most notably, Hillary Clinton, should keep that category sizzling this week.)
http://www.journalism.org/node/3759