Timeline: Top News Stories of 2012
Here’s a look at the public’s top 15 news stories of 2012, according to Pew Research Center’s News Interest Index.
News Content Analysis 
12.20.12
12.20.12
Election, Tragedies Dominate Top Stories of 2012
The public’s news interests were very much focused on domestic developments this year, with the election outcome, last week’s horrific school shooting and Hurricane Sandy leading the list of the top stories of 2012. With the exception of the attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya in September, which became a bitterly debated campaign issue, [...]
12.30.10
Public’s Top Stories of the Decade – 9/11 and Katrina
Summary of Findings The 9/11 terrorist attacks drew more public interest than any other story in the past decade. In October 2001, a month after the attacks, 78% said they were following news about the story very closely, up slightly from the week after the attacks (74%). The devastating hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast [...]
12.29.09
Top Stories of 2009: Economy, Obama and Health Care
Summary of Findings The troubled economy and efforts to revamp the nation’s health care system dominated the public’s news interest in 2009. From the year’s start, Americans kept a close watch on the unfolding economic crisis, as well as Barack Obama’s efforts to grapple with the crisis while trying to make good on campaign promises. [...]
10.31.95
A Content Analysis: International News Coverage Fits Public’s Ameri-Centric Mood
Report Summary A new study suggests that the way the media covers international news may be doing little to change the American public’s indifference to concerns about world events and foreign policy. A four-month analysis of over 7,000 international news stories now finds that newspapers and network television focus most often on world news that [...]
03.01.95
Media Coverage of Health Care Reform
Summary of Findings This joint project of the Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Columbia Journalism Review tracked the volume and tone of press coverage of the health care debate from September of 1993 through November of 1994. This final report summarizes the broadest findings of the [...]
