An analysis of about 70,000 stories from 48 separate news outlets in five different sectors identifies key characteristics of coverage in a year dominated by two mega-stories. Among the findings overall:
• The media were slow to track and recognize the dimensions of an economic downturn that exploded into a full-blown crisis in the fall. And it largely did not see the banking and financial crisis coming. In the second quarter of the year, for instance, nearly half of the economic coverage—fully 47%—concerned rising gas and energy prices, an issue that was not central to the economy’s problems. And the press drifted away from covering the economy right before the September collapse. In August, the economy filled just 5% of the newshole—down from 11% in June and 14% in July and its low point for the year.
Cluelessness or cuts? I know they Globe had to kill its business front last year. This year it was health and science page -- just in time for health reform.
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