Transition and Economy Drive News Coverage

According to the News Coverage Index for Nov. 17 - 23, a weekly study of the media agenda from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, the country's financial crisis and the auto industry's troubles -- taken together -- amounted to the largest topic of media coverage for the week. If the economy was the crisis of the moment, the transition to a new Presidency was the context in which the events unfolded. Overall, indeed, the transition filled 23% of the media newshole, about the same amount as it had been the previous week (at 24%). But if the story of the transition began with signals from Obama about the economic crisis, more of the week was dominated by leaks involving his possible appointments. There even were stories by the end of the week about how the leak-free Obama camp was now leaking.