Health Care Generates its Biggest Week of Coverage

As it hurtled towards a climactic vote in Congress, the health-care debate accounted for more than a third of the newshole last week, its biggest week of media attention since the News Coverage Index began in January 2007.

Last minute deal-making, vote counting and suspense over a package of measures approved Sunday by the House of Representatives consumed 37% of the newshole during the week of March 15-21, according to the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. That topped the previous high of 32%, which occurred twice before: during the week of August 10-16, when tempers were flaring at town hall meetings, and from September 7-13, when President Obama addressed the issue in speech before a joint session of Congress that was marred by heckling. The second biggest story of the week, at 8%, was the economy—with coverage driven by a proposal to reform federal oversight of banking and investing. Though the level of economic coverage was lower than in previous weeks, this represented the fourth straight week of a health care/economy exacta at the top of the nation's news agenda.