Monday, October 05, 2009

Overlooked in economy coverage: You.

Journalism.org, the Pew Research Center’s Project for Quality Journalism, in checking what the media reported during our national economic crisis, came up with these findings:

1. Everyday Americans are getting the least coverage during our national economic crisis.
2. The media’s economy coverage plummeted from 46% in February and March to 16% by July and August.
3. Banking, stimulus packages and automakers hogged the coverage.
4. Unemployment and the housing crisis got sparse coverage.
5. Ordinary citizens and union workers combined triggered only 2% of the economy stories.
6. Retail sales, food prices, impact on Social Security and Medicare, education and health care combined drew just over 2% of the economic coverage.
7. 81% of the stories were datelined Washington, New York, Los Angeles or Atlanta.
8. President Obama understandably was the No. 1 newsmaker in the economic coverage. No. 2? Ponzi scheme figure Bernie Madoff.

To read the entire report, click on the headline.

No comments: