News Interest Index: News Coverage Surpasses Interest at Campaign's End

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News Interest Index: News Coverage Surpasses Interest at Campaign's End

Both the public and the media focused most closely last week on the congressional elections as Tuesday's midterm vote approached. Still, the public's interest in election news did not increase in the final days of the campaign, despite heavy news coverage.

The latest News Interest Index survey, conducted among 1,003 adults from Oct. 28 to Nov. 1, the day before the midterm election, finds that 29% said they were following news about the congressional elections very closely; that is little changed from 30% a week earlier and 33% in mid-October.

The elections were the week's most closely followed news story: 24% said they followed the elections more closely than any other story compared with 18% who cited news about the economy. However, coverage of the elections accounted for 42% of coverage, far outpacing any other story, according to a separate analysis by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ).

Read the full report, News Coverage Surpasses Interest at Campaign's End on the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press' Web site.

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